


KAAFF Rising

by DonTheRock



Series: KAAFF [2]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Dystopian, F/F, Government, Gun Violence, Love, Mutant Powers, No Smut, Psionics, Teen Romance, Teenagers, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 28,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22796572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonTheRock/pseuds/DonTheRock
Summary: The sequel to We Are KAAFF.Andi and the rest of KAAFF set out on a mission to save all the students affected by the school intrusions.Based on Disney's Andi Mack.For ages 13 and older.Trigger warning for sensitive subjects: gun violence; school shootings (non-graphic); violence/injuries.
Relationships: Amber & Andi Mack, Amber/Andi Mack, Ambi – Relationship, Buffy Driscoll/Marty, Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen, Jonah Beck/Walker Brodsky
Series: KAAFF [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635178
Comments: 29
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Andi’s POV**

When I was eight years old, my goldfish died. Cece and Pops helped me hold a funeral. Buffy and Cyrus wrote a song for it. It was a lovely song. I cried. They cried. I flushed the toilet, and Rainbow the fish went away with the water. 

This is nothing like that. I've seen so many people die in the last week, and none of them got funerals. It's strange that these people are. There are 146 in total. 146 kids and staff who died trying to stay alive. Many more were taken. Jonah was the one who insisted we hold a funeral for them. I never even had the idea. Have I become such an awful person that I'm numb to death now?

A blanket of clouds blocks the sun from sight. It's silent outside, as though even the bugs understand the tone of this day. I stand with the rest of the crowd, watching two teenagers, Caroline and Benjamin, carry the last of the bodies and lay them in the giant pit that took a whole morning to dig, during which we were also trying to clean up the mess made inside the school. We didn't exactly have the space or time to dig a bunch of holes individually, so we decided a collective grave will have to suffice. 

"That's the last one!" Benjamin calls to Gus.

Gus steps up out from the crowd and takes his stance in the centre before us all. Beside me, Cyrus gives me a nudge, and I look to see him holding out a tiny white candle the size of my thumb. I take it from him, thanking him with a nod. He holds his own, as do many others in the audience. I guess someone must have found these in the school somewhere. I see a flame ignite at the end of the row, and I watch as Kaitlin takes a lighter and holds it over her palm. In an instant, the tiny flame becomes a huge one that burns from her skin. She puts the lighter away and begins walking down the line of people, dusting her fire over everyone's candles, lighting them in one long motion. As she passes mine, I give her a nod of gratitude, and she returns the action. Everyone in the front row passes the fire back, lighting the candles behind them and so forth until all the candles in the crowd are lit, and the grass below us flickers with golden light. 

Gus coughs a couple times and then starts his speech. 

"Life is a beautiful yet fragile thing. All the people who passed last night, they were our friends. For some, they were family. Some were our most trusted teachers and best supporters. One thing that they all have in common is that they were loved. They were taken from us too soon, but they didn't go out without a fight. They were strong and brave. They sacrificed themselves to protect the rest of us, and in doing so, they've become part of something bigger, part of a group of people who will do all they can to keep another soul from passing on. The ones we bury here today will go down in the history books for being among the greatest heroes alive, and their names will not be forgotten, not now, not ever. They will live on in our memories and hearts."

Gus hangs his head down and walks over to join the rest of the crowd. Marty and Buffy step up from the sidelines and pick up two shovels, along with a few other people. Right as they're about to begin returning the mountain of dirt back to the hole from which it was dug, setting the bodies into the earth to be dissolved by nature, two boys break through the crowd. Together, they're holding another body, but this one is not of a kid or teacher. It's a tracker. 

"What about the rest of them?" one of the boys questions. 

Glances are thrown between those in the sidelines, and chatter starts. The two boys wait as the the people with shovels debate on the issue. After a minute, Marty steps forward, and everyone goes silent at the sound of his voice. 

"Put them in," he decides. 

Buffy looks at her boyfriend with disapproval, but Marty holds firm.

"They were people too," he says. "It may not feel like it, but they were."

At that, Buffy steps down and lets the two boys carrying the body pass by to place the corpse in with the others. A few more people from the crowd join them to help bring the last of the dead to the grave. The rest of us simply watch, faces grey and eyes sunken with grief. 

My eyes focus on one of the faces visible from where I stand. It's the girl who nearly killed me with her fire today. Buffy told me her name was Avery. I wish I had gotten to know her as more than just a face. Maybe she liked to sing or play soccer. I'll never know. 

I feel myself subconsciously reach for Amber's hand, and she takes it and holds it tight. TJ has Cyrus in his arm next to me. Past that, I notice Amina's elbow linked through Eli's. I guess they must have gotten close during the time they were stuck in a car together. 

It takes just under an hour for all the dirt to be packed atop the bodies, but nobody moves. We all wait and watch. Some cry, including myself. At one point, Amber kisses the side of my head, and I fall into her, resting my head on her shoulder.

When the kids put down their shovels, there's nothing left for us to do. Those whose candles haven't yet reached the end of their wicks blow their fires out, and the crowd begins to disperse. 

"It doesn't feel done," I mutter. 

Amber rubs my arm as she holds me. Cutting off my view of the grave comes Amina. The girl seems to have recovered from any bit of sadness she may have felt, for she holds her chin up with confidence. 

"Unfortunately, there's no time to mourn," she states, flat-toned. "We've got people to save. I'll be inside when you two are ready to start formulating a plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I hope you are all hyped for this. I'm both hyped and scared, because I can already tell this story is going to really challenge my writing abilities. I really hope I can deliver a story that meets your expectations. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Andi's POV**

Two of the four lights above flicker constantly, while the other two are cracked and burnt out. The tiny meeting room smells musky, but I can't identify why. Sitting around the table are all the people who've decided to be leaders of this half-baked operation we're running: myself, Amber, Amina, Jake, Eli, Leif, River, Buffy, Marty, Jonah, TJ, and Cyrus. Amina, of course, is steering the conversation. She sits at the head of the table with one leg up on her chair and an elbow resting on that knee. 

"So I've come up with a basic outline of the plan," she says, "which will need to be expanded upon, but we don't really have much information to go off yet, so we use what we have. First, we have to divide ourselves into two groups, those who stay here and those who go out."

"Why can't we all go?" I question.

"Because, Andi," Amina replies, "when we free each school, we'll need somewhere that we know is safe and protected for them to come back to if their schools aren't safe. Also, I don't know about you, but I haven't thought of a way to transfer 600 people and also lay low."

She doesn't say my name in a deliberately snarky way, but something about her simply having the right to use my name irritates me. 

"Got it," I respond bitterly. 

"So we can probably only bring no more than, like, sixty to eighty people. Give or take a few," Amina goes on.

"I can stay behind," River volunteers. "Someone will need to lead the people still here."

"No," Amina shoots down. "Your ability is way too useful to be left behind."

"Then I'll stay," Jonah speaks up. 

"What can you do, again?" Amina checks. 

"I see infrared light," Jonah replies. "It's basically only useful for checking to see if the stove is hot."

"Okay. You'll stay here."

"I'm going," TJ says.

Cyrus looks to him with fear in his eyes, but TJ takes his boyfriend's hand.

"I'll be fine," TJ promises. 

"Then I'm coming too," Cyrus says. 

TJ shakes his head. "Cyrus—"

"Don't fight me on this," Cyrus cuts in. "You know I'll win."

TJ sighs and puts his arm around the boy, letting Cyrus lean over on his shoulder. With the amount of times they've been close to seeing each other die in just the past day, I can understand why they both want to hold on to each other at all times. 

The next people to claim spots on the mission are Buffy and Marty, both with equally determined looks in their eyes. This is basically one big competition to them, and there's no way they could ever back down from the challenge. 

"I assume you're going?" Eli asks Amina. 

Amina nods. 

"Then I guess I'm going too," Eli says. 

"Me too," Amber joins in. 

Of course I'm worried for her safety. I'm probably as worried for her as Cyrus is for TJ, but I already knew what her plan was, and I know that Amber Kippen is not one to be held back once she sets her mind to something. 

"And I'll join," I tell her. 

"Andi, you can't do anything," Amina states, looking confused at my choice. 

"Amina, it's what's in the heart that matters," I snipe back, knowing my response is total bullshit as I'm saying it. 

Amina shakes her head but doesn't push further. 

"Hey, I'll stay with you, man," Leif says to Jonah. 

The boys fist bump across the table, and I can tell they're going to become friends pretty fast. 

The last one yet to speak is also the youngest, and when he does, Amina's eyes go wide like a mom watching her kid spill apple juice on the carpet. 

"I'm going," Jake says. 

"Uh, no, you are not," Amina scoffs. "You'll stay here with Jonah and Leif."

"Amina," Jake says, leaning forward, putting his weight on his arms on the table, "I'm thirteen, not seven. You need to stop treating me like a little kid."

"You are a little kid," Amina retorts. 

"A little kid who can make anyone see anything I want them to," Jake replies. "Amina, I could make you think the ground were collapsing if I were touching you right now."

The older sister lets out a huff and says, "Fine, but you're not going to be going into any of the schools."

"Fine," the boy responds, crossing his arms over his chest and flopping back in his seat. 

"Okay, once we've divided the rest of the people here," Amina goes on, "we need to get to the schools and start releasing the kids there. I don't know if they'll have their chips activated or not, but we should be prepared for that."

"What if no one's even at the schools?" Buffy asks. "They took everyone here away when they came."

"They did that because we were fighting back," Amina answers, "I think."

"You think?"

"Well, do you have a better idea, Driscoll?" 

Buffy sits quiet. 

"That's what I thought," Amina says. "Look, if no one's there, we'll at least be able to hopefully find some clues on where they were taken."

"Okay, but how are we going to find the other schools in the first place?" TJ chimes in. "Aren't they in, like, top secret locations?"

Amina grins and reaches into her jacket pocket. She pulls out a piece of paper and slaps it down on the table. On it, lines and shapes swirl around, forming some kind of map, with a few yellow dots specked across the page.

"With this," she says. "Turns out there's a lot more than just emails on Metcalf's computer. I just had to crack the passcode, which I found a kid with genius powers to help me with. If you ever need help solving a crossword puzzle in the future, ask a girl named Evie."

"Okay," Cyrus says, bringing us back on topic, "so once we've gotten all the kids from the schools safe, then what?" 

"Well, then we come up with another plan," Amina says. 

"Okay, wait," Buffy says, turning all eyes to her. "How are we even going to get eighty people—or anyone, for that matter—transported to get to the schools? We don't have cars."

"Actually," Jonah responds, a smile growing on his face, "we might have something better."

_______________________________________

Jonah presses the button, and the huge garage door rises, revealing rows of yellow school busses. I guess the teachers had to have stored them somewhere when they brought everyone here, and this garage connected to the back of the gymnasium is somewhere. 

"Alright," Jonah says. "Let's get everyone loaded. Who wants to drive?"

"Me," TJ replies. "Sauce me the keys."

Jonah tosses a key set to TJ, and TJ heads toward the closest bus. Cyrus follows behind, letting TJ pull him along by his hand. 

"Pass me a set too," Amber calls to Jonah. "Can't fit everyone on one."

Jonah nods and launches a second set of keys in her direction. I follow Amber onto the school bus beside TJ's. 29 of the 58 people who agreed to come load onto our bus after us, while the rest go to TJ's. It turns out there really aren't too many people who are comfortable risking their lives without any prior training on how to minimize that risk. The ones who get onto me and Amber's bus include Buffy, Marty, River, Kaitlin, and others I recognize but can't name right away. Amina, Eli and Jake are on the other bus. 

"Hey, before you go," Jonah says, stepping up to the doorway. He holds out a small, black walkie-talkie. "So you can keep in contact with the other bus."

I reach to take it, saying, "Thanks."

He smiles at me for another second and says, "Be careful out there, Andiman."

Instantly, a wave of nostalgia flushes over me as I recall way back in middle school when our lives were normal, and our biggest worry was our overly-complicated relationship. 

"And you be careful in here, Jonah Beck," I reply. 

He gives me a nod then heads off to bring the second radio over to TJ's bus. After tossing her small bag of necessities—unfortunately not including snails this time—onto the seat behind her, Amber straps her seatbelt on in the driver's seat, and I lower down next to her stuff, dropping my own bag on top of hers. 

Inside the netted water bottle pocket of my backpack is the shimmery, white star, the one I didn't want to leave behind. I'm still surprised it's held together for this long. Everything else Amber makes turns to dust the instant she forgets about it. I wonder why this star hasn't fallen apart yet. Maybe she just hasn't stopped thinking about it—or about me. 

Amber slides a copy of the map underneath the strap on the sun visor above her. On it, our first destination is circled. We're going to Colorado. 

The keys make the engine roar to life. I pass the walkie-talkie into Amber's open hand, and she brings it up to her mouth. 

"TJ," she speaks into it, "you ready?"

A second later, we get a response. "Let's do this."

The siblings both crank their steering wheels to get the busses out of the garage, and we drive out past the 550 hands waving us farewell. The only clear path through the trees is the one that the teachers used to get us in here a week ago, so that's the one we take to get out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Okay, I'm hyped. We're gonna get this started. I'm hoping this is not going to be as long as the first story, but it may be longer. Who knows. I'm just going to try to update frequently and get it done in a reasonable amount of time for y'all. I love you! Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Andi's POV**   
  
  


Two school busses full of teenagers would likely stand out like sore thumbs on the highway, so Amber and TJ decide to take the back roads. Bare grass extends on either side of us, spotted with various bushes and the occasional tree. Thankfully, the few cars we do pass here don't seem to give us much thought.

I stand beside Amber, leaning against the grey barrier that blocks the first seat. In my hands is the thick map book that I found in the compartment under the dash. I have it opened to the page with the section of Utah that we're in. I'll be able to guide us out of the state, but once we cross the boarder, my map will become useless, and we're getting close to that point. That's why, before we left, we took the precaution of printing out the directions using the map on the principal's computer. We had this only as a back-up in case everyone's cell phones died, but strangely enough, none of them get any reception on either of these busses. That would explain why my texts never sent the day I initially missed the bus at the Grant. 

"Okay, take the next right," I direct.

"Got it," Amber responds. "Thanks."

"Hey, Andi!"

I turn around, seeing Kaitlin waving me over to her at the back of the bus. She and two boys are huddled together. I recognize one from my math class, Mitchell. The other is one I don't know well, but I believe he said his name was Ali when he volunteered to come on the bus. 

"What's going on?" I ask as I sit down in the same seat as Kaitlin, looking over the back of the chair at the two boys. 

"We were wondering if you've decided yet who was going into the first school?" Mitchell questions. 

"And how many?" Ali adds. 

"Um, I don't know," I reply. "I think Amina was saying probably around thirty-ish, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Oh," Mitchell responds, disappointed. "Aren't you kind of, like, the leader of all this?"

Me? Why would they think I was the leader? That title certainly goes to Amina or Amber or Buffy or TJ or literally anyone but me. I'm the weakest person here. I couldn't lead anyone. 

"No, not me," I correct. 

"Didn't you figure out the chip thing before anyone else?" Ali asks. 

"Yeah, Andi," Kaitlin agrees. "You're kind of a hero. Without you, who knows what would be happening to us right now."

I shake my head. I'm sure I appear humble to them. Little do they know I just don't feel comfortable at all with the idea that I would be a hero. I'm just Andi, the girl who makes art out of plastic straw waste. That's about as great as I get. 

Yet somehow Amber sees me as being worthwhile. I remember that sometimes and am surprised all over again. I glance back at the girl driving the bus, but all I can see is her eyes in the rearview mirror. 

When I look back to the group I'm supposed to be talking to, I put on a smile and pretend to be confident.

"Thanks," I say.

Once they're done asking me more questions I can't answer on my own, I move up to where Buffy and Marty are sitting together, their hands interlocked, and I plop down on the seat across the isle from them. 

"Hey," Buffy says as she looks over at me. "How are you doing?"

"I'm..." I let out a bold breath. "I just kind of can't believe what's even happening. You know, every morning I wake up, there's always this moment when I think that maybe everything that happened the day before was part of my dreams, because there's no way something that crazy could be real. But then it is real, and I'm overwhelmed. This stuff isn't supposed to happen in real life. I'm pretty sure I read a fanfiction once with this same plot."

"Yo, I think I read that one," Marty responds. 

"I know how you feel," Buffy says, choosing not to comment on Marty's statement. "Honestly, everything was kind of normal until a couple days ago. I thought the biggest issue in this country was gun control, not a massive genetic modification and kidnapping scheme by some people who we have no idea what they want or why. Even for me, it takes a level of strength to stay in one piece that I don't think I have, and I think the only reason I haven't broken yet is because I'm still in shock."

"I'm sorry," I reply. "I was thinking about myself. I didn't even consider how much harder this is for you, seeing as this is all so recent."

"It's okay," Buffy assures me. "If we all didn't think of ourselves in times like this, it'd be a lot harder for us to think of anything at all. There's nothing wrong with worrying about your own mental health."

"I guess so," I say. 

"Buffy's right," Marty joins in. "You can't save anyone from falling off a cliff if you're falling too."

"Look at you and that analogy," Buffy comments with a grin. 

"Hey, English is my best subject," Marty responds. 

Amber's voice grabs my focus as she calls from the front, "Andi."

I get up and go join my girlfriend at the front where she's darting her eyes around the road, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar territory. When she speaks, I'm confused about what she's talking about. 

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty low too," she says. 

"Low on what?"

Then I hear TJ's voice buzz through the walkie-talkie. "Let's stop at a gas station. Cyrus doesn't have a map. Can you us to one?"

The walkie-talkie has an elastic band around it holding the button down to keep Amber constantly in contact with the bus driving behind us. 

"Sure thing," Amber replies. Then she looks at me. "Andi, could you guide me to the nearest gas station?"

"Uh, yeah."

I pick up the map book again from where I left it on the seat with our bags. I flip through the pages until I find a drawing with the roads labelled the same as the signs we pass by. My finger traces the ink, searching for the symbol for gas station somewhere nearby, but I can't find one.

"Um, give me a second," I say. 

I reach into the glovebox compartment and pull out the pages of printed Colorado roadways. I search through the pages until I find the one that lines up with the road we're currently on. 

"Uh, so there's a little town right away when we cross the boarder," I explain. "I assume that will have a gas station."

"Sounds good," TJ's voice says. "I'll follow you."

"Okay, so we're just going straight for a bit," I tell Amber. 

As we drive, the open plains begin to fade as green ash trees start showing up on either side of the road. After a while, the foliage takes over our entire surroundings at the same time as the road begins to get bumpy with cracks and potholes in the asphalt. Everyone looks around while the bus rattles, shaded by the leaves. 

"Okay," I say, "there should be a fork, at which point you turn right."

We continue down the road, but soon it starts winding like a snake between the trees, and Amber struggles to make all the corners. After taking the right at the fork in the road, she looks up in her rearview mirror and realizes that TJ's bus has fallen behind out of sight. 

"TJ, you still there?" she asks. 

There's no response. 

"TJ?"

Nothing again. Amber reaches for the walkie-talkie, and I see that the light that was once green is now off. 

"Damn it," Amber breathes. "It died."

"Okay, well, I'm sure they're not far behind. We're almost out of the trees I believe," I say. "The road straightens out pretty soon, and then the town will be really close after that."

"Okay."

Amber continues through the trees, curving around each bend with caution. As she takes one more corner, suddenly, the trees break away into pure blue sky. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that the road also breaks away until we're already skidding toward the edge of the cliff, her foot stomped firm on the break. 

"Amber!" I shout.

"I can't slow down fast enough!"

Fear pulses through me, and I reach for the emergency break, but it doesn't help. I close my eyes as we roll over the part where the asphalt crumbles down the side of the hill, bracing myself for the fall, but it doesn't come. The screams of the bus's passengers all hush, and I open my eyes to see that the bus is rolling on air. It finally stops with just our back tires on the road, and the rest of the bus sticking out of the hillside like a nail out of a board. 

Amber leans forward to get a better view at the empty space underneath us, her eyes wide in shock. 

"How?" she mutters. 

"Doesn't matter," I say. "Back up."

She does as I tell her and puts the vehicle in reverse, rolling us back onto the safety of the road. A moment later, we hear the engine of the other yellow bus come up behind us while Amber and I are exiting ours. The two of us step out to the edge of the road. In the distance, the buildings of the town I've been directing us to stick up through the trees. This road should go all the way down there, but instead it chops off here. It looks like this whole side of the hill was blown out by some kind of explosion. 

"What the hell?" Amber says. 

I stare down at the space beyond the road. It looks normal. Then I try taking a step forward, but I'm stopped by TJ's shouting. 

"Don't! There's nothing there."

Amber and I both spin around, seeing him and Cyrus running over to us. 

"Did you see what just happened?" Amber questions. "We were floating."

"I know," TJ replies. "I did that."

That only raises more questions. 

"Wait, but how?" I ask. "And how did you know we were in trouble? Weren't you way behind us?"

"Yeah," TJ says. "I don't really know. But I got a feeling like something was wrong, and then I saw this picture in my head of a road ending, and I guess I imagined what was about to happen."

TJ seems to be coming up with the answer as he speaks. Amber just stares at him, confused. 

"Also, my force fields are pretty versatile," TJ continues, "although it took a lot of strength to hold up a bus, so I'd appreciate it if you watched where you were driving from now on."

Amber shakes her head. "I still don't understand how you knew what to do."

"Neither do I," TJ responds. 

The two siblings keep their eyes on each other for another moment, and Cyrus and I watch, unsure of anything that's going on. When I look to him for an answer, he just shrugs. 

"Okay, well, um," I say, breaking the silence, "the town is right there."

Amber and TJ end their look to redirect their focus over to the view. 

"I think there's another route to get there," I go on. "Let's just go slowly this time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to pack a lunch today, because I got up late, so now I'm eating mint oreos and regretting having to spend money. Anyway, I'm gonna try to update again tonight as well. I have the story planned for a lot of chapters so far, so I'm excited to continue this story. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Andi's POV**

The town is small, but it's not a ghost town. I can see lights on through the windows of the few houses we pass. The shops all have their open signs lit in their windows. The traffic lights operate as usual. There's even a Boston Pizza right as we enter in, like every small town has. 

As we pull up into the gas station, the truck ahead of us grumbles away, and we take its place. Kaitlin steps out of the bus with Amber and me, because she's the only one with money on her. Unfortunately, it is debit, which we concluded back at the hotel was a back idea, although that could've been because of the chips in everyone's heads. Either way, I don't think anyone is following us this time. I'm pretty sure anyone who would have tried to find us is now either dead or long gone. 

TJ parks on the other side of the pump at the Shell station, and him and Amina step off of the bus. 

"What kind of gas do busses take?" Amber wonders as she scans the button options with her eyes.

"Uh, is there a bus option?" TJ says. 

Amina looks at him with furrowed brows. "What the fuck?"

A sudden bang makes us all jump, and she whip around in the direction away from the gas station where the sound originated from. All we see is the street and what's across it, a driveway leading up to a parking lot behind the shops that face the street. A flash of a moving shadow turns my eyes to the asphalt by edge of the flower shop. 

Amina walks around our bus to get a better look at what was hit. When she can't find anything in the distance, she spins around to examine the bus and sees that the tire is deflating. 

"Son of a bitch," she mumbles. 

"It's official," I say. "Only bad things happen at gas stations."

"No kidding," Amber mutters as she steps up beside me. 

Suddenly, another crack rings and we all look to see the other tire go flat. 

"That's it," Amina says. 

She starts off in the direction of where the gunshot came from. TJ and Kaitlin join her, and I attempt to do the same, but Amber grabs my hand and pulls me over. While the three march right across the street, Amber and I swing around to cross at the corner where anyone in the driveway wouldn't be able to see. We jog to catch up with the others and come up to the front of the brick flower shop. Amina continues stomping down the asphalt, and when another bullet comes flying, she puts her hand in its way, and the bullet drips to the ground. 

"Don't try that shit with me!" she warns. 

Amber and I peer around the corner of the building to see the face of a teenage boy peering out from behind the same flower shop. His eyes are wide at what Amina did. Then him and another boy his age leap out from their cover and each shoot a shot. One pangs right off the invisible shield TJ has thrown up, and the other melts at Amina's touch again. 

Now panicked, the kid on the left, who's wearing a black toque and white Nikes that are so dirty you'd think they were grey, swings his arm overhand, and a ball of fire flings out toward Kaitlin. She catches it in her hands and snuffs it out with a clap. 

"Will you guys cut it out!" Kaitlin shouts. "We're like you."

The two kids exchange glances then lower their weapons. Amber and I leave our hiding spot as the two boys walk up to meet our group. 

"Why are you in school busses?" the boys ask. 

"We didn't have anything else," Amina replies. "Why are you two shooting at our busses, and are you going to replace the tires?"

"We thought you were chasers," the toque boy says. 

"What are chasers?" Kaitlin asks. 

"Don't you know?" the other one, who wears a some kind of puffy, 90s jacket, says. "They're the ones who keep coming after us, the ones who took over our school."

"You mean trackers?" Amina says. 

"Is that what you call them?" jacket responds. 

"Okay, wait," Amber steps in. "How come you didn't go under their control? Did your chips not activate?"

"No," toque scoffs. "We found those things way before they got to our school."

"Wait, so your whole school is free from their control?" I ask. 

Toque nods. "Most of them. Some were captured. Others were killed. Those who made it out left."

"Now it's our turn to interrogate you guys," jacket says. "Who are you?"

Running comes up from behind, and I look back to see River and Buffy approaching. 

"Are you guys okay?" River asks. "You kind of left without warning."

Buffy nods in the direction of the two boys. "Who are they?"

"They are..." I trail off. "What are your names?"

"Dean," Toque says. 

"Thomas," jacket says. "Who are you?"

"I'm Buffy." She pauses before adding, "the vampire slayer."

Thomas chuckles a bit at that. "And what are you guys doing in our town?"

"Your town?" Amina repeats, putting her hands on her hips. 

"That's right," Dean affirms. "This is Slink Tribe territory."

"Slink?" TJ mutters. 

"What about all the people who, you know, live here?" Amina challenges. 

"We only care to keep out the chasers," Thomas tells her. "We're not dicks."

"Okay, well, where is everyone else from your school?" Amber asks. 

"They all went off to form their own tribes," Thomas answers. 

"Why do you need tribes?" I question. 

"This whole country is fucked," Thomas replies. "If we don't band together to protect each other, then we're gonna go down with it."

"Which school did you come from?" Kaitlin asks.

She brings up a good question. We're on our way to Harrison High School, but it they're from there, then there's no point in us going to save that school.

"Filmore," Thomas answers. 

Okay, so Harrison still needs saving. And Since Filmore is in Utah as well, I doubt the trackers have gotten to Harrison yet. 

"Now back to what you're doing," Thomas pushes. 

"We're going to free the schools," Amber says with enormous confidence. 

The boys break into judgmental laughter. 

"You guys are going to do that?" Dean says. "You'll get yourselves killed."

"There are more of us in the busses you shot at," Amina says. 

"You guys should just start your own tribe and stay away from the schools," Dean says. 

"We're not afraid of them," Amina responds, "and we're not going to let other kids suffer."

"You do you, I guess," Dean replies. "Just make sure not to tell the chasers about us when you get kidnapped."

"Well, we could agree on that," Amina says, "if you have somewhere safe that some of us can stay for a while. You did shoot our tires, so we can't exactly drive much father."

Harrison is only a few more miles out from here, so this would be the ideal place for those who aren't going to the school to settle while the others begin their mission. We didn't exactly have a plan made for what we'd do while the others were freeing each school. Amina is intelligently addressing that crucial gap. 

Dean scans Amina from head to toe, his face stern, before saying, "We might have a place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Sorry this is short. I'm not sure how long the next chapter will be, but chapter seven should be fun for you all. Anyway, I love you, and have a dandy night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Amber's POV**

It turns out the place Dean and Thomas had for us was the same place where the whole Slink Tribe resides. It's a community recreation centre, which neither of them will explain how they managed to secure. There are just over twenty boys who occupy the area, and they're all caught off guard by the entry of a group of strangers twice their numbers. They all stare down at us in the foyer from the balcony of the second floor. 

Once Dean explains our purpose in being here, the boys all return to their business. Dean explains that the only room we're allowed to be in is room 310, a large event room with twenty tables all spread out. The ceiling has yellow stains from something that's leaked through from above, and the white tile floor is smeared with dried mud. The room clearly hasn't been cleaned in some time. 

Fortunately, all we need are the chairs to sit in, although I definitely don't want to look at how much gum is likely on the bottom of the one I sit in. As a group, we begin formulating our plan for how to get into the school and who's going to do it. 

The plan, however general it is, is strung together with the accuracy of a preschooler with crayons on a colouring book. None of us really know what to expect, which also means there are few people willing to claim a spot on the trip into the first school. The ones who raise their hands to volunteer make the final cut instantly: me, TJ, Marty, Buffy, Ali, Mike, Jess, Christian, and Teagan. 

Right as my hand goes up, I see Andi look down, her arms crossed over her chest beside me. I can feel her resistance to let me go, but I push the feeling down, trying not to let it change my mind. I'm one of the only people here who's actually spent time training my abilities. I need to do this. 

But I can understand her. I'm just as scared for my brother. I don't want him risking his life, but I know he's too noble to back down from a chance to help hundreds of other people. It shows that we're siblings. Both of us have unbreakable determination—or maybe just a denial of when we're making stupid choices. Both could be true. 

Amina isn't coming. She says that someone who knows as much as her needs to stay here, so that if anything happens, she can direct the next move. I glance over at Andi, for she's been with Amina long enough to be able to lead the group, but Andi has no objections. She doesn't believe she could do that, and I'm not about to volunteer her to be in the centre of the danger. I'd rather she stay low and stay safe. Actually, I'd rather she be at Grant Academy right now, but letting my emotions take over my opinions would only cause more trouble. It's better just to let her do what she wants, as long as that doesn't involve her walking into a line of gunfire. I need her to stay alive. I need to know that she's going to be waiting for me when I get back, that she will kiss me and tell me this will all end soon. I'm amazed by the strength she must have to not grab me and yell at me to stay, to scream that she can't go an hour of not knowing if I'm alive. In the end, she may not have any powers, but she is so much better than me. I truly don't know how I ever survived a year without her.

When the plan is set, and the meeting is adjourned, Andi is still watching the floor. I see Cyrus pull TJ into a hug, followed by a kiss, and then just a simple moment of the shorter boy's forehead resting on the taller one's chin, the two of them silently appreciating this time before my brother has to leave. I touch Andi's shoulder, and her eyes lift up to mine, but she doesn't look happy. I can see the worry storming inside her. 

"Hey," I say gently. "You're okay with me going, right?"

She shrugs and mutters, "It doesn't really matter, does it?"

That stings me a little, rendering me silent.

She lets out a breath and continues, "I know why you want to go, but I just kind of wish you wouldn't."

"Andi, there are so many other kids who need help—"

"Yeah, I know," she mumbles. "There's always someone who needs you more than me."

She turns her eyes down again then walks away, not even looking back, and I'm left feeling gross inside. I don't know what I should be doing. Because I'm pretty sure going is right, but how can it be right if it hurts the person I love? The most convoluted dilemma in the universe is when the needs of the greater good clash with the needs of one beautiful girl whose voice convinces me that angels really do exist. 

_______________________________________

As I round the corner in the hallway, I see an open door with vibrant white light shining through it. Curious, I push into the room, seeing a large fitness centre with a huge sunroof. Workout machines and tools fill the floor, but my little brother stands at the far end, using only two dumbbells. I recognize what he's doing. Whenever he's really stressed, he works out, often pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion. 

When he sees me, he drops his arms, setting the weights down on the floor. He breathes heavily as he falls back onto the bench behind him, resting his arms over his knees. 

"So," I say, "what does Cyrus think of you coming on this mission?"

He breathes for another moment, letting his face fall downward, and I go over to stand across from him, leaning on the back of the treadmill behind me. 

"He's not too happy," TJ answers. "What about Andi?"

I let out a sigh. "Yeah, she'd rather I stay here."

TJ listens, but I can tell his mind is running a mile a minute, trying to get through about a thousand thoughts at once.

"Amber," he says after a second, "Are we doing the right thing? Should we be letting other people go instead?"

I don't think I had my reason fully put into workable words before, but it makes sense as I say it now, convincing me further that I'm not making a mistake.

"If we don't go, then that's two less people, and then the others going will have a lower chance of success than they would've had. If we decide to stay here, then that's choosing two people over hundreds. You love Cyrus, and I love Andi, but I'm sure those hundreds of high school kids that are trapped right now are also loved, and I don't think it's my place to decide that my girlfriend's feelings are more important all of their lives."

TJ nods. I can tell that he understands, but he's still not sure. 

"It's your choice, though," I remind him. "You don't have to go."

"No," he says, standing up. "I want to." 

He looks at me with a certain forced confidence in his eyes. Pointing out how fake it is won't do anything but make him insecure, so I pretend his act is convincing and give him a smile. 

"You really are a good person, you know that?" I say.

"Well, I learned from the best."

He looks at me, and for a second I think we're back at our home, talking in one of our rooms about something like boys or girls or grades, and we're about to be called down for dinner at any moment. But our parents' voices don't sound, because they're not there, and we're here, nowhere near home. 

I step up, crossing the coarse air, and trap my brother in a hug, which he reciprocates. When TJ steps back, he's looking at something else, and I glance back to the door, seeing what. Andi stares with red eyes, looking like she must've been crying. 

"I'll leave you two to talk," TJ says. 

As he heads out of the room, Andi walks in. She comes over to me, but she stands farther than normal. It burns in a way, and she's the aloe vera I need to sooth the sting, but she won't move any closer. 

"Amber," she starts, her voice sounding like she's being choked by tears, "I know I've always said I understand that you want to help the other kids, and I do understand, but I need you to understand where I'm coming from. I lost you once, and I know that was my fault, but I can't lose you again."

Tears spill from her eyes, and I rush up to wrap her in my arms, unable to stand being apart from her for any longer. I feel her hands cling to my shirt, gripping on as though I'm going to float away at any second, and her sobs are loud in my ear. 

"You're not going to lose me," I tell her. 

"How do you know?"

"Because, Andi, there is no force in this whole universe that could keep me from coming back to you."

When her crying lightens up a bit, she lets me go reluctantly, and her hands slip down into mine. 

"Promise," she requests. "Promise you'll come back alive."

I give her hands a squeeze. "Promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Uh, this story is gonna get exciting soon, so be hyped. Also, I love you all very very much. I appreciate every single one of you, and I can't believe you've stuck with me through two stories now. You are all so special and lovely. Thank you! Bye!


	6. Chapter 6

**Andi's POV**

"Nothing like expired Rice Krispie squares," I say. 

The wrappers crinkle in Jake's hand as he collects more from the near-empty cabinet in the kitchen in the back of the event room. The space is nothing more than a sink, a pantry, a bare fridge, and a solid door that leads out to the event room. Whoever was here last must not've liked store-bought Rice Krispie squares, because that's all that's left. Well, not anymore, because now Jake has them all in his arms. He looks over at me with eyebrows raised. 

"Do you want one?"

I shake my head. "Nah, they're all yours."

He nods and brings the armful over to the island to drop them down as a pile. The wrapper resists a little before giving in to the boy's tear and opening up for him to take a huge bite. While he chewing, he looks around, eventually coming back to me who still stands in the kitchen, my eyes now settled on the Rice Krispie squares. 

"Okay, maybe one," I say as I reach out to grab a treat. 

Jake watches me for another moment before asking, "So were you looking for something, or…?" 

"Same thing as you," I reply. "Something to eat." _Or just something to focus on that wasn't my girlfriend being out right now risking her life._

I'd been sitting with Cyrus for the past forty-ish minutes since the group left to Harrison Academy. The whole time, he talked about all the instances when TJ did something really dumb but ended up fine, trying to reason with himself that TJ will be okay, and there's nothing to worry about. This is just as hard on him as it is on me. We'd been spending so long talking about our significant others that the stress was starting to build up too much, so I needed to get up and walk around, nowhere in particular, to try to think about something else. Rice Krispie squares has the most potential of anything here to help me achieve that.

"Cool," Jake says with a nod. "Well, I wasn't planning to share, but go ahead."

I'm startled by the door flinging open. Amina pops her head in, and the worry on her face flushes away as she sees her brother. 

"Jake, please don't sneak off like that."

"I only went to the next room," Jake responds. 

"You need to tell me when you're leaving."

"You need to relax."

Amina furrows her brows at the pile of Rice Krispie treats. "What are you eating?"

"Rice Krispie square. Want one?"

"What? No."

Jake shrugs. "More for me."

He scoops up an armful of the treats, missing a few on the counter, and heads for the door. Amina watches him with her arms crossed and nervous eyes. Usually she's so put together. It's weird to see her this distraught. 

"You okay?" I ask her, although my voice gives away the fact that I don't care that much.

"Probably more okay than you," she replies. 

I'm not sure whether or not I should be insulted by that, but she doesn't sound mean. 

Amina hops up onto the counter behind her and sits with her legs dangling over the edge. 

"I know it's probably hard for you with Amber gone," she says, "and you don't know if she'll come back, and I can only imagine—"

"Please stop," I interrupt. "You're not helping."

She nods. "Sorry. I just…I know what it's like to care about someone and be scared every second about if they're okay."

I find it hard to believe that she, of all people, knows how I'm feeling, but the way she has worry marks permanently wrinkling her forehead tells me that maybe it's true.

"Is it Jake?" I ask. 

She doesn't answer for a moment, trying to get her response translated into words. 

"Before all of this, I was always the one taking care of him. I mean, my dad was around, but he was always busy with work. My mom left long ago. I would drive Jake places, make him supper, schedule his dentist appointments… He's always been my responsibility, and I've always been his big sister who he could count on to protect him, and now… I just feel like I'm letting him down. I'm supposed to keep him safe, and I don't know how to do that anymore."

Her eyes start to well with tears, which she wipes away as soon as they appear. I've never seen her cry before. It's kind of off-putting actually. I'm not used to this. But I guess she is a human just like anyone else here, which means she has feelings and fears, and she is probably really scared every time she makes a decision, because what if it's the wrong one? 

"You know this isn't your fault," I say. "You couldn't have stopped any of this from happening, and you've been doing so much to try and keep everything together." I let out a breath, accepting the truth of my next words. "More than I've done."

"I know, but—" she pauses to search for the words "—it's different now than it was before. Recently, it's like I can feel him, my brother. I know when he's sad or when he stubs his toe. It's like I can feel the pain, but it's not pain. It's… I sense it. I sense where he is, and sometimes, I swear I'm having his dreams. When I'm asleep—they're not like mine. They're his. I don't know. It sounds crazy."

"No, it's not crazy," I tell her. "I had a sister. Well, she's actually my mom, but I thought she was my sister. Anyway, when I was little I felt connected to her. Even when she was gone, I knew that she was with me in a way."

"But this is more than that," Amina insists. "I can't really explain it. It's just… Yeah, I don't know. I just really want him to be safe. I need him to be safe. If something happens to him, I'll have failed at being his sister. Back in the car, when you, Leif, and Amber were in Grant Academy, I stayed up every night, because Jake always started sleepwalking, and I had to make sure he didn't leave. He would even unlock the doors in his sleep—"

"Unlock the doors?" I repeat, surprised.

"Yeah, it was weird. And he always went in the same direction, like he was trying to get to somewhere specific. It might've been just something with how his brain works when he sleep walks, I guess. But anyway, I made sure he didn't wander off, even if that meant sacrificing my own sleep."

Now that I'm seeing her closer, I can see the bags under her eyes. They're faint and maybe not even something to be concerned about, but they're there. She's had a lot of stress lately. I always just pegged her as being conceited. I never considered how difficult it would be to take responsibility for a whole school of kids. She's making the calls that I don't have the confidence to make. Looking at her now, I'm not so convinced that she even has the confidence required, but she does it anyway, because someone has to. 

"Does he still sleepwalk?" I wonder. 

"No. Not since the chip came out," she says. "It was probably a side effect or something."

"Yeah," I respond, "I guess."

We both stay for a moment, silently contemplating, until Amina finally speaks again. 

"I meant what I said," she tells me, "about Amber. If you need someone to talk to, I know you're not too fond of me—"

"Why would you think that?" I ask, feeling exposed. Clearly, I didn't try to hide my antipathy very well. 

"I know I'm no psychologist," Amina replies, "but I can tell when someone doesn't like me."

I nod, smiling awkwardly, unsure how to respond. 

"It's okay, though," Amina says. "I was spending more time with your girlfriend than you were. To be fair, I didn't realize you two were a thing."

"It's all good," I say. "I was unreasonable. You're allowed to be her friend. Actually, of all the people she could choose to be her friend, I think you're a pretty good choice."

That makes Amina smile, and she replies, "I appreciate that."

"No problem," I say with a breath. "Now if she can just come back soon and alive, we can all get back to being friends."

Amina holds her eyes on me for a moment. I can feel my emotions threatening to spill from my eyes, but I don't let them. I've already cried enough, and it hasn't helped. I just need to wait it out. 

While I try to blink away the tears, I notice Amina's hand raise and hover out between us. It's an action of peace, and if I accept it, I accept her emotional support. When I lift my hand to link it with hers, and our arms relax, hanging between us, I feel myself smile. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tired, so I'm going to sleep, but I really liked this chapter. Also, prepare for something wild next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

**Amber's POV**

We expected the school to have high security outside and inside, which is why Marty has us all covered under his blanket of invisibility the whole way from where we parked the bus to the school, so all of us are confused when we step over a muddy hill and see the school down at the bottom with not a single sign of life wandering the perimeter. 

"Are we in the wrong place?" Jess wonders. 

"Nope," Buffy replies. "I'm pretty sure this is right."

"So why is there no one here?" Teagan asks. 

We walk together in a cluster, not risking straying so far from Marty that we come back into visibility. I can't see him, or anyone for that matter, but we hold on to each other like chain links, ensuring we don't disperse. 

As we enter the valley, I examine the school. There are no lights on, at least not from what I can see, just evening sunlight. We probably could've waited until night for this, but Amina stressed the fact that we don't have time to waste. It looks like an exact replica of Grant Academy, the only difference being its surroundings, which are just grassy hills rather than trees. 

With nobody out to have to dodge, we simply head for the first door that leads into the main building. It feels strange just strolling up without a fight. I figured we'd have to be sneaking around a lot more carefully. 

"You got it?" Marty asks me. 

"Mmhmm."

I create my sugar lace inside the lock of the door, and it falls under Marty's cover instantaneously. I didn't realize how much I relied on my sight to create a good lock pick before now. 

"You almost done?" TJ asks me after a couple minutes. 

"Yes, I just can't see anything," I respond, "so it's gonna take a bit longer."

Eventually, I find the correct shape, and I'm able to twist the lock. Slowly, I pull the heavy door open and stick my head inside to check for occupants. Not even so much as a sound litters the hallway of classrooms. It's completely empty. I step inside, followed by the others, and Marty's invisibility drops, showing to me all the flabbergasted faces of the others. Doors remain open, only lit by the gold shining through the windows, and dust hangs suspended in the air, untouched before us. 

"Where is everyone?" Mike questions. 

"The trackers must've already come," I say. 

"So, what do we do now?" Ali asks. "Just leave and try another school?"

I shake my head. "There's no point in trying another school. If this has been cleared too, then I doubt any won't be cleared yet. What we should do, though, is split up and look for clues, anything that can give us an idea of where the students were taken, or what's happening to them, or why they were taken—basically anything that seems important. Uh, Marty, you go with Buffy. Mike and Jess, you;re together. Ali, Christian, and Teagan, you're a group."

"That means I'm with you?" TJ asks. 

"Well, I'm not letting my little brother go off on his own."

He nods, and the others all shift around to stand in their groups. 

"Okay, we meet back here in max half an hour," I state. "If anyone needs anything...uh, shout or something."

"Sounds like a plan," Ali says with a little sarcasm. 

"Okay," I say with a nod. "Let's go."

We all take off in different directions. I lead the way for TJ, continuously checking each room we pass by to ensure there really is no one here. He quickly catches up to my pace, marching alongside me. 

"So if we can't find anything," TJ starts, "what then?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," I respond. "Just check the rooms to see if you find anything that looks out of place."

We continue on down the hall, peering into each room. They all look uncomfortably normal. There wasn't a fight here. There's not so much as a paper clip fallen on the ground. It's so calm that I question if anyone was even here at all. 

"Why is it all so..." TJ pauses for a moment. "...quiet?"

"No idea..."

The next classroom I find pulls me in with the sight of something unique. I go over to one of the school desks and brush my hand upon the soft knit sweater that drapes over the back of the chair. Pinned to the front of it is a tiny, enamel aromantic pride flag. Beneath that is a bronze broach that looks like something my grandma would've had, fake jewels and all. I wonder if the owner of this misses it or if they're too brainwashed to even remember it. 

All of a sudden, TJ pops into the room, startling me as he says, "Amber, I found something."

"Shit," I say with a gasp of fright. 

Then I spin around, and go over to join my brother who waits patiently at the door. I follow him down the hall and into what looks like the teacher's lounge. This room is a significant contrast to the others we've seen so far. It's the only one that looks like there might've been some kind of conflict. Empty lunch containers and used napkins sit on the tables. One of the chairs is fallen over. A red smear of blood stains a single spot of the carpet. The teachers, of course, didn't have chips, so it makes sense that they're the only ones who fought back. 

What TJ had found, though, isn't just the messy space. He picks up a black glove like the ones many of the trackers have worn. 

"Here's our proof," I say. "We know they were here."

"Yeah, but look at this."

He flips over the glove, and I notice a metal badge that's been sewn onto the wrist. It's a symbol I think I recognize but can't pinpoint where: a black circle with five grey, wavy stripes spawning from the centre and spreading outward like a weird version of a star. 

"Why do I feel like I've seen this somewhere before?" I say.

"That's what I thought too," TJ says. "I can't remember where, though."

I take the glove from him and turn it around in my own hands, trying to jog my memory. When nothing comes up, I give the glove back to TJ who stuffs it in the pocket of his hoodie. 

"I don't think there's anything else here," he says.

"Okay," I respond. "Let's keep looking around elsewhere, then."

I'm about to take a step back when I suddenly feel a sharp pain hit my left shoulder. I see TJ's eyes flash up to something behind me, flooding with fear, but pretty soon I can't see him anymore, for my vision becomes blurry, and my head goes dizzy, causing me to stumble backward. 

The instant I hit the ground, an image flashes before my eyes. At first, I think it must be my life like the saying goes, but then I realize I've never seen this sight before, and I don't know how I would, for it's not from my own eyes. It's from TJ's. I see my body lying on the carpet, and behind me, a devilish grin with some kind of gun brings his piercing eyes up to TJ's. 

My eyes drop closed, too heavy to keep open, but I can still see the moment, or at least specks of it. I see the tracker. I see a dart rebound off a forcefield that it looks like I'm creating, but I know it's actually TJ. I see two more trackers, and them closing TJ into a corner. I see the forcefield crumble after enough real bullet shots that also send TJ stumbling to the ground. I see my body being moved, dragged, but I can't actually feel it. I see the scene blur behind TJ's tears. The two trackers flying back into the walls and hitting their heads so hard that they fall unconscious. Running, TJ's running. An empty hallway. More tears, these ones catching sunlight from the windows, which refracts in the liquid and sends a blinding yellow glow across the whole image. 

Then everything goes spotty, and blackness takes over my mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was short, but this story's also officially BEGUN. Stakes are high now. We're going. It's going. I'm excited. Anyway, have a lovely night. Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**TJ's POV**

At 10:00 in the morning on August 16, 1812, a flag, white as snow, flapped in the wind, being blown by a power far beyond the fabric's control. That was the day Detroit was surrendered to the British Canadian forces. Heads hung low, music silenced, and children stopped dancing—or so I imagine. As defeating as it was, it was the logical choice. If the U.S. had continued to fight, there would've been far more lives lost than the city was worth. 

I know it was the logical choice, too, to leave her behind, but even so, walking into the event room in the recreation centre with one less person than we left with feels like the greatest defeat I could ever experience. This time, it wasn't just a name I vaguely knew who was shot dead and buried. This time it was my sister, dragged away before my eyes. We searched. We did. But by the time I was able to get out of the two trackers' power and scream for the others, Amber was long gone. 

Now, I step into this room, my head hung low, feeling more anger than sadness. She should be here. She must be alright. She's too strong to be dead. She must be somewhere, and wherever that is, I'm going to find her. I'm going to save my sister. 

The people in the room leap onto their feet, smiling at our return. Nobody realizes yet that not all of us have come back. 

Cyrus runs up to me and throws his arms around me, and I hug him tight like I could lose him at any moment—because now I know I could. His warmth rolls through me in waves, releasing my anger into the floor, replacing it with blue grief. Even after a minute or so, I'm still not strong enough to stand on my own, so I stay with my boyfriend, and he doesn't try to let me go. 

Then my eyes wander upward from the ground, and I see Andi. The girl frantically scans the group that enters in, her eyes filling with more and more fear by the second. When she finally matches her eyes to mine, I don't know what to do, so I just look at her, and she understands. 

"She's not dead," I whisper loud enough for her to hear. "She was taken."

That fact hardly makes a difference. Her love is gone, and gone is gone. Gone is…not with her.

Tears rip out from her eyes as she shakes her head, starting gently and eventually becoming so aggressive that I worry she might fall over. She looks hopeless, helpless, and I know how she feels. But I also wonder if it's different. Sure, I love Amber, but Andi's _in_ love with Amber. She's given that girl her everything, in the hope that it will be safe, but Amber being stolen away is not safe. It's catastrophic. It's an atomic bomb on her already unstable world. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if she broke away and crumbled into the sea. 

"No," she whispers. Then louder. "No. No! No! No!"

I let Cyrus go, but Buffy beats me to Andi. Andi collapses into her friend's arms, and Cyrus and I quickly go over to stand by in forlornness. We watch as the girl loses her footing, and Buffy has to hold her up entirely. 

"Please, no!" Andi bawls. "Not her! Please!"

Her words soon become too muttered by her sobs to be comprehensible, and Buffy struggles to carry Andi's weight, Cyrus and I go over to help keep her on her feet. Like the start of a hailstorm, the sky falls on my arms as I hug the broken girl. I can feel the dozens of eyes around me staring at her, but they're nothing compared to the way her desolation burns my hands black. My earlier question is answered now. My sadness is not the same as hers. What she feels for Amber is comparable in magnitude to what I feel for Cyrus. I know that if I lost Cyrus, my entire world would cease to exist, because he is that world. Andi's world has just disintegrated beneath her, and now she's struggling to breath in the air that's been vacuumed away. 

Eventually, she is able to stand again, and the rest of us cautiously remove our support. She stares down at the floor, sniffling with red eyes. 

"I need to be alone," Andi's raspy voice croaks. 

We all step aside, allowing her to hurry off out of the room. When she's gone, everyone stays quiet for another moment. Nobody knows what to say. The first one to finally break the silence is Amina. 

"So we lost Amber," Amina announces. In her face, I can see that she's torn, but she won't let herself cry. She makes her body stand straight and continues being the leader she needs to be. "We lost her, but we're going to get her back. We are going to find out where she was taken, and we will save her."

"I think she might be with the others from the schools," I speak up. "When we got to Harrison, there were no kids left. It had already been invaded. The only people there were the three trackers that found me and Amber. I'm guessing everyone from there was brought to the same place those from Grant were brought. If they are taking Amber somewhere, which I think they are—they chose to knock her out, not kill her like they could've—then I'd bet she's wherever everyone else is."

"Okay," Amina responds in a breath. "We just need a lead, something to help us find them. Did you guys see anything at the school before you had to leave?"

"Amber and I saw something," I say. 

I pull out the glove from my pocket. It's so clean. You wouldn't know from looking at it that it existed during a battle, one that its carrier lost. Amina takes the glove from me and examines it herself. 

"What's the symbol on it?" she asks. 

"I don't know," I say, "but I've seen it before. I can't remember where, though."

Amina nods and returns the glove back to me. 

"Unfortunately, as long as we don't know what it is, it's useless," she states. "We'll need to come up with another plan, and I suggest we go back to Grant Academy to do that. There's no point in us carrying on out here if every school we go to is just going to be empty aside from some trackers."

"That's a good idea," I say. 

Amina looks at me and nods, giving me a small smile, although her eyes still show uncertainty. I think she needed that validation from me. 

_________________________________________

**Andi's POV**

She promised. She promised me she'd come back. I had been hanging on to those words, trusting that she could handle herself. I thought the universe wouldn't want to watch me shatter. I feel naive for thinking the universe cared about me at all. Maybe everything my dad always said about fate and the universe and its consciousness, maybe it's all just a bunch of hippie shit. Maybe the universe really is just a big box of energy and matter, and it will break us apart without feeling a thing. 

I sit on a chair in the fitness centre, trying to stop my crying, but the tears just keep flowing. I honestly can't believe I even have this much water in my body. Every time I rub the tears away, they come right back, taunting me and making me feel like I have even less control over the situation. After a few minutes, I release my frustration in the form of a scream, one so loud it makes the floor rattle. 

If I had abilities, the skylight would shatter and sprinkle glass down over me, or maybe something would burst into flames, or a huge wind would rush through the room, tossing all the equipment over. But I have no abilities. I can't do anything—not to make the room show my pain, and not to save Amber. I'm just a normal girl in love with someone far greater than I am, and she was overpowered by someone stronger than her. If I were to try to get her back myself, I wouldn't stand a chance. I have no advantages over anyone. I'm simply helpless. 

As I catch my breath from my yelling, I see Buffy step through the doorway into the room. She looks at me for a moment, and within that moment, I feel another cry coming on. Before the next teardrop can fall, Buffy is hugging me, caring for me the way the universe should. After another minute, she steps back and sits down in the chair behind her, but she doesn't speak. She gives me room to unload my own thoughts. 

"I love her," I whimper. "I don't understand why this happened. She—she promised she'd come back."

"We're going to het her back," Buffy tells me. She sounds so confident in her words that I actually believe them. "We're going to go back to Grant Academy and figure out a plan to find out where she is," Buffy explains. 

I nod, wiping my eyes, this time actually being successful. 

"Okay," I respond. 

At that, Buffy stands up and holds out her hand for me to take, but I'm not quite ready to leave yet. 

"I think I need another minute," I say.

"That's okay," she replies, dropping back into her seat. "I'll stay here with you as long as you need."

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"Andi," Buffy says, her eyes driving in the point, "I'll always stay with you when you need me."

"Thank you," I whisper, and for the first time since she returned, I feel myself smile. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Sorry. I'm tired, so I don't have author's notes. Actually, I do. I loves writing this chapter so much. That's all. If anyone wants to read more on the capture of Detroit, here's the article I used for research. 
> 
> https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/capture-of-detroit-war-of-1812


	9. Chapter 9

**Andi's POV**   
  
  


With the help of Dean, Thomas, and some of their tribe, the tires on our bus have been replaced, and I now stand in the moonlit parking lot while our large group of teenagers loads onto the two vehicles. With Amber no longer here, Amina has volunteered to drive, and Marty has decided TJ is too emotionally distracted to drive, so Marty is taking the wheel of his bus. I should be finding my place on one of the busses right now, too, but instead I simply stare at the yellow vehicles, pulling my sweater snug around my torso.

If I step inside one of those busses, I'll have to truly accept that Amber's not here. I thought I'd done that already, but I can tell now that I haven't, not fully. Part of me still expects to see her walk up behind me and feel her fingers brush through mine, which would send a chill spiralling up my spine. I know I shouldn't keep waiting, but I can't seem to make myself move, so I stall as long as I can, listening in on Amina's conversation with Dean on the pavement.

"You sure you don't want to come with us?" Amina asks him. 

"I'm sure," Dean replies. "I've got my tribe to look after."

"Well, I thank you for letting us stay here," Amina says. "Even if no one else knows, the Slink tribe will have helped us save the rest of the kids affected in America."

Amina and Dean share a firm handshake before Amina turns and steps up into her bus.

She gives me a wave, saying, "Andi, come on," and I nod, forcing my feet to start in her direction.

As I'm about to get on, I notice some people to my left and look over, realizing they're from our group. I hold up a finger to let Amina know that I'll be one second, then I dash over to the two girls kneeling by one of the large rocks on the grass by the door to the rec centre. As I approach, I notice a marker in one girl, Amanda's, hand, which she's using to draw something on the stone, while Ginny watches next to her.

"Hey," I say. "The busses are leaving."

"Yup," Amanda says. "I'm just finishing up."

She makes another swoop with her hand then pulls the marker away and puts the lid back on it. I step around the stone to see what she drew. It's a simple outline of a clenched fist coming up from a squiggly line like water waves. Below that, the acronym 'KAAFF' is written in block letters. 

"What's this?" I ask.

"It's our logo," Ginny answers.

"Since when do we have a logo?"

"We had some time to waste," Amanda explains. "The fist is the symbol for freedom, and the waves are because we're rising like a wave."

"We drew it here, because someday in the future, someone might care that we were here," Ginny expands further.

"It's perfect," I say. "But we should get going."

"Right, of course," Amanda replies.

The two girls stand up to go, but before leaving, Ginny makes one last adjustment to the image. She touches the black ink lines with her finger, and the black begins morphing to a dark blue. I look at the colour, trying to understand what the change means. When Ginny steps back again, she notices my effort to decipher it.

"It's the colour of unity," she says.

She steps away toward the busses, but I take another moment to memorize the drawing. It's not just ink on a rock. It's a promise, one that I clasp on to, for it will be the reason I can keep going without Amber here. We are KAAFF, and we are rising. We will save Amber. We will save everyone.

_________________________________________

Amina steers, and I sit on a seat with my bag and Amber's next to me. She'll want it back when we find her. In my hands, I fiddle with the sugar lace star. It gives me a sense of security knowing that it's still in tact. As long as it's in one piece, Amber must be okay. That assumption has no valid ground to support it, but I go off it anyway, because I don't have anything else to keep me hopeful otherwise.

"Hey."

I look up to see Eli smiling and sitting down on the seat across the isle from me, his knees pointing out at me rather than straight ahead. I'm pretty sure that's unsafe, but I'm not really feeling my mom-friend energy right now.

"Hey," I respond.

"How are you holding up?"

"Uh..." I let out a sigh. "I'm alive. That's a plus."

He nods, taking that in.

"Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always available," he says.

"You know, I appreciate that, but I really just want to think about something other than me right now. Tell me about you. What's new?"

"Uh, nothing," he replies.

"Nothing," I echo back in skepticism. "What about you and Amina? You two seem to have gotten close."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you could say that."

"You guess? You were just up at the front, talking to her for the past hour."

"Okay, we're getting close," Eli admits.

"That's good," I say. "She's a good person."

"Wow. Never thought I'd hear Andi Mack say those words about Amina. Weren't you annoyed with her from the day you met her?"

"I was jealous," I disclose. "I was really insecure, and I thought Amber would like her more than me."

"But you know Amina only ever liked Amber as a friend, right?"

"Yeah," I say. "I think I just found it easier to blamer her, because then if Amber didn't like me, then there was a reason that wasn't because I wasn't good enough for her."

"I knew right away when I met you two that Amber liked you more than she knew how to handle," Eli tells me, "and I know you'd take a bullet for her. You, Andi Mack, are more than good enough for her."

I smile. It's reassuring hearing that from him, although I still don't know how much I believe it. I know Amber says she loves me, but do I deserve that love? It's hard to believe that out of everyone in the world, I'm the best person for her. Even just out of the people on this bus right now, I don't compare to any of them, not in strength, not in intelligence, and certainly not in ability. When we do find her, will she still want to be with me, or will she want be with someone who doesn't constantly need her protection? The things I can do aren't near as amazing as what she can do. What if she falls for someone with a special ability instead of me, plain Andi Mack?

I shove the fear aside and just be grateful for the compliment.

"Thanks," I say. "And you are more than enough for Amina, Eli... I don't know your full name."

Eli chuckles and says, "Elijah Hikes."

"Wait, I haven't even known your full first name?" I say in surprise. "I feel like a bad friend."

"You're not," he assures me. "I don't tell many people my name."

"Like TJ," I say. "He still won't tell me what his name is, but Cyrus always grins when I ask about it."

All of a sudden, River comes barging between us, hurrying up to Amina at the front. Eli and I turn our heads to listen in to what has them looking so stressed.

"Amina," they say, "I think someone's following us."

"What?" Amina responds.

While she looks in the rearview mirror, I turn around to check behind us. I don't see any other cars on the road aside from Marty's bus in front of us, which makes sense, because this street is weirdly out of the way from anything other than trees and hay fields.

"I don't see anyone," Amina says.

"No, but I feel them," River explains. "I've felt them for a while now."

Amina glances up at River's concerned face then says, "Okay."

She uses one hand and a knee to steer while she grabs the freshly-recharged walkie-talkie off the dash and brings it up to her mouth.

"Marty, you there?"

"Here," his voice buzzes through the speaker.

"We're being followed."

"What?"

"Take a couple corners. Try to lose them. I'll follow you."

She passes the walkie to River to hold, so that she can focus ahead while Marty whips around the next left. The thing I've noticed about Marty's driving is that it really isn't smooth—like at all. He does everything way too abruptly, but he hasn't crashed yet, so that must count for something. After the next right, we drive straight for a while, and River silently reevaluates the situation.

A moment later, they tell Amina, "They're still following."

Amina takes the walkie-talkie back and clicks down the button, saying, "Okay, Marty, time to just take every corner you see."

"Got it," the boy replies.

Everyone else in the bus is now quiet, looking around at our surroundings, wondering where the person chasing us is. Theories start spewing, some kids saying it's trackers, and others thinking it's police.

What follows next is a carnival ride of twists around corners of the road that I'm not sure are even roads, but there aren't trees in the way, so Marty and Amina treat them as roads. While we wind the earth in random directions, River tells us to keep going, yet I still don't see the car we're trying to get away from.

Then I do. Out from the trees comes a red Boss 429. It's too dark out to see its driver, but I know it's not someone we want to get caught by.

"Go faster!" River orders through the walkie-talkie.

We take another corner, then another, until the red car finally disappears from our tail.

"Good," Amina says. "They're gone."

River doesn't seem convinced. "Actually..."

Less than a second later, Amina slams on the breaks, swerving to avoid ramming into Marty's bus which skids to a stop in front of us.

"Fuck," Amina breathes.

Inertia throws me forward into the back of the seat ahead of me as the bus halts. When I push myself upright again, I stand to get a look at what's blocking our path. The red car sits in the centre of the street before us, it's headlights flashing bright into the night air. This road must circle back to the one we were on before, and this driver knew that.

None of us know what to do. We all watch the car, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, something does happen, the headlights shut off, and the driver's side door swings open. When the person's face becomes visible in our own vehicle's rays, my jaw drops.

Amina stands up from her seat to get a better view before shouting, "Alistair?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very much enjoying writing all these twists in the plot. Thank you very much for reading! Anyone who hasn't already, check out my new Tyrus story, Moonbow. Please? Anyway, I love you, and have a good night :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was messing around and created a quiz to find out what character from KAAFF you are. Here's the link, and it's also in my bio: https://www.opinionstage.com/dontherock/which-kaaff-character-are-you Comment what character you got.

**Andi's POV**

When Alistair said he was residing in a cave, I thought that was a figure of speech. I didn't imagine it was a literal cave. But it's not a naturally-made one. Apparently, among the other twenty-one teens he's been living here with, which include mostly people I recognize from the old hotel we used to be at, with a few unfamiliar others that must've joined at some point after we were split up, one of the boys has the ability to turn matter into energy. That is how he created this massive pocket of space inside a hill. From the outside, all that's visible is a small door-sized hole in the rocks, but once we walk in further, Me up at the front of our group of KAAFF members with Amina, Eli and Alistair, the hole opens up into a large room. The ceiling is simply dirt and stones packed together and held in place by tree roots that scribble our surroundings like piles of strings stuck in random places and overlapping by accident. Dangling from those roots are Christmas lights that manage to make the whole area glow, though I can't tell what they're plugged in to. Maybe they're battery-powered. 

The few people in this main entryway smile and greet Amina as she enters in. They give me and Eli nods of acknowledgment as well, but they certainly don't know us as well as they know her. The rest of my group begins wandering the corridors as they finish filing in. Cyrus and TJ have their hands locked, coming up behind me. 

"So this is where you were before you found us?" TJ asks me. 

"No," I reply. "We were at a hotel."

"Okay, so I'm not crazy for thinking this place is way too trippy to be real."

I chuckle, but he continues looking around in awe. A second later, Cyrus tugs him away to go exploring the halls. Alistair remains talking with Amina and Eli, and, figuring I might know something of what they're talking about, since I was at the hotel at the same time as them, I head over to join their conversation. I don't know where River is. I assume they must've gone wandering with others from our group. I step into the circle in the middle of Amina's talking. 

"We went to the first school," she explains, "but there was no one there. I don't think there are any schools left that haven't been cleared out."

"I could've told you that," Alistair responds. "I haven't gone into any of the schools myself, but I've come across a lot of stray abnormal kids, so we made this place for us all to stay until we find something more permanent."

"How long are you expecting this all will last?" Eli wonders. "I mean when will people be able to go home and be safe there?"

Amina answers before Alistair can, saying, "It's not going to last much longer. We just need to find out where all the students are being brought."

"How far have you gotten with that?" Alistair wonders curiously.

"We have no real leads," Amina admits. 

Alistair sighs. "That's why I'm not out there doing more. Without any clue of where to go, I was more useful just helping the students who managed to get away by providing them with a home and a support system. I was hoping to find you too at some point, but I see you were doing quite fine without me."

A yell jolts us all, but it turns out to be just Jake shouting to his friend. The two boys reunite with a bro hug and big grins. When I look back to Alistair, he's smiling watching them, which is strange since I've never seen him smile out of simple joy before. 

"How's Jake doing?" Alistair asks. 

"He's fine," Amina replies. "He went through this thing where it turns out he was sleepwalking a lot in the middle of the night, but it's stopped since his chip's been gone. I assume you know about the chips."

"Yes. I found mine just barely before it was activated, but I managed to get everyone else's out. Marija and Koko have been trying to dissect and understand one, but their only experience with this type of stuff is high school robotics, so they're not getting very far."

"Is there any chance I could take a look?" Amina asks. "We all basically destroyed our chips, so I never got a chance to see one up close."

"Certainly," Alistair answers. "They're down that hall in the last room on the right."

Amina nods then looks at me and waves for me to come.

"You want me?" I say in surprise. Unless she wants me to turn the chip into a pair of earrings, I'm literally useless. 

"Yes," she confirms. "You _were_ the first one of us to find it."

_I wasn't being a genius or anything. I was just making out with my girlfriend and happened to find it._

What I actually say is, "Um…kay."

I join her for the walk down the hall. It feels like walking through some kind of worm tunnel. The ceiling is rounded in an arch over us. At the very end of the corridor, there's a patch of darkness where the Christmas lights run out before the candles set up on the floor in the room to our right replace the missing light. Inside, two girls stand over a table made of large stones, which holds the lone computer chip they're examining. They have another stone holding a small bunch of the familiar metal pieces.

When we enter in, the two girls look up, showing surprise mostly directed at Amina. 

"Amina!" The girl on the left says.

"'Tis I," Amina responds. She turns to me and points to the girl on the left then to the one on the right, introducing them, "This is Koko and Marija."

"Nice to meet you," I say.

"I think I've seen you before," Marija says. "You were at the hotel, right?"

"That's right."

"We were hoping we could see one of the chips," Amina says. 

Koko, who holds a pair of tweezers that she's probably been using to pick through the parts of metal, glances to Marija then back at Amina, looking unwilling to submit to the request."

"Um…" she says. "It's pretty fragile."

"Oh, he'll be careful," Marija sputters, but then she corrects herself. "She'll be careful."

I notice Amina wince a little at the mistake, but she doesn't acknowledge it, and neither do I. I'm mostly just trying to understand what happened. Besides, I'm not going to step into something that I don't know anything about. 

Amina carries forth with kneeling down and inspecting the chip on the stone table. She runs her finger over it to feel the metal, and I notice that the chip itself is only about a third of the size of her fingernail. 

"Yeah, I wish I knew anything about this kind of stuff," Amina says with a laugh. 

She stands up again and takes a step back, and I can tell she's ready to leave. 

"I'll let you both continue," she says. 

The girls say goodbye as Amina heads for the exit, and I hurry to catch up to her. Once out in the hall, we saunter slowly, and Amina is quiet, highly contrasting my loud mind. I have so many questions, but I figure I probably shouldn't ask all the ones regarding Marija's mistake, because that has to do with something that's really none of my business. So instead I choose a question that I know isn't going to be too heavy. 

"How did you meet them? Did you save them from trackers too, like you did for me and Amber?"

"No, actually, they escaped our high school with Alistair and me and some others," Amina explains. 

"You were at the same school?"

"Yeah," Amina replies, her voice quieter and less orotund than usual. "Same school as them since elementary." She lets out a sigh. "And yet Marija somehow still messes up my pronouns on occasion."

I don't say anything, not wanting her to feel pressured to continue if she doesn't want to, but I also don't want her to think I don't care. I care about her, strange as that is, considering how just yesterday I made an effort to avoid her when I could. But now, I actually do care about her. 

"She's at least better at it than when I first transitioned," Amina goes on. "Back then, she didn't even try to get it right."

Amina looks at the ground, walking at a snail-like pace alongside me, but she doesn't seem outwardly upset at all, something that puzzles me a bit. 

"Does it bother you?" I ask after a second. 

She brings her head up again as she responds, "Sure, a little, but it's not like I can do anything about what Marija does and thinks, so I try not to let it anger me. Anger is stupid anyway. It's a waste of my time, and I don't like wasting time, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"Yeah, I sensed that when you went from funeral to down-to-business in less than a second," I say with a chuckle.

Amina laughs. When she's done, she continues, saying, "When I was younger, ignorant people used to keep my up at night, but I grew, and I moved on."

I nod, letting her words go through my mind. I could probably keep that in mind sometimes. The amount of times I've been mad and felt drained after is surely numerous. It's just hard for me to regulate when I'm upset, which is why I'm very impressed with Amina's control over her emotions, a quality of hers that I haven't taken the time to notice before now. 

As we enter the main hub of the underground home, I see Jake talking with his friend, and I suddenly stop walking as an idea clicks in my head. _That used to keep her up at night. Up at night._

Amina turns to me, confused. "You okay?"

"Amina, Jake used to sleepwalk when he had the chip in," I say. "You said it seemed like he was going somewhere."

"Yeah…" Amina responds, unsure where I'm going with this. 

"I think I know how to find it."

"Where?" But then she gets what I'm talking about. "Do you mean the place where the students are?"

"That or somewhere of equal importance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do y'all know where Andi's going with this idea? Also, thanks for reading this chapter! I spent a long time trying to get this just right, and I hope I wrote it okay. Thank you for always supporting me and reading. I love you very much. Also, I realized I used to put questions of the day in the notes, and I've stopped doing that, so I'm going to do it again. Do any of you possess any skills, talents, or knowledge that you think is a little unusual?


	11. Chapter 11

**Andi's POV**   
  
  


Jake doesn't just look scared as Amina and I explain our idea to him, Eli and Alistair. He looks terrified, as though he's worried we've gone off our rockers, and what we just said was some kind of plan involving nuclear fusion reactors.

"I know it's a long stretch," I say, "but if you can agree to this, then we might actually be able to find and help so many people."

Jake's eyes are wide with fear, but I think he can tell that mine are wider in hope as I beg him to help. Not only will we be able to help countless others, but we might actually be able to find Amber, and I need her back.

"Are you sure this will work?" Jake asks.

"No," I answer honestly. "I have no idea."

That doesn't help Jake's confidence in me, but Alistair takes my side, saying, "It's all we have to work off right now."

Amina puts her hand on her brother's shoulder, and he shifts his focus to her.

"Jake, I will be with you the whole time," she tells him. "I won't let anything bad happen to you."

"I'm not as worried about me," he says. "What if I do something to you? We don't know what the chip will make me do."

The rest of us all share a glance. He has a point. We haven't exactly tested the breadth of the chips' effects. Maybe this plan was too half-baked to ever be plausible.

"We'll be fine," Amina says, contrary to my own thoughts.

"There's far more of us of than there are of you," Eli brings up.

Jake's eyes dart between us all while the weight of the decision continues to press him, until he finally takes in a breath and says, "Okay. Do it."

After alerting the rest of KAAFF of our plan and telling them to spread the news and get ready to go, the group has reconvened together on the busses to wait for us to start with the process. Many lie asleep on the seats while some others are awake, preparing to get driving once Jake is on his feet. 

Alistair's cave doesn't have any beds for Jake to rest on, so we gather together a bunch of blankets and spread them out on the dirt. Having disinfected one of the metal chips, Alistair now holds it in a pair of tweezers, with a small pocket knife in the other hand, ready to surgically insert it into the boy's head. 

Now that we're actually doing this, I can tell that Amina is nervous. She holds Eli's hand tight while fiddling with her free hand. Jake is surprisingly calm as he attempts to go to sleep with the rest of us all standing around him, waiting. Clearly, he wants to seem strong, maybe for Amina's sake. I think she might make us stop if he were letting as much fear leak out of him as she is letting out of her.

It takes just under half an hour for Jake to fall asleep. It probably would've taken longer, except that it's past midnight, and we're all pretty tired. When he stops responding to his name, we know we're good to start.

Alistair kneels down and gets his knife ready. Eli goes over with a towel, ready to collect the blood, but Amina can't watch. She comes over to me, automatically hooking her elbow through mine and holding tight as she turns away. 

"It's okay," I whisper to her.

"I know," she responds. "I'm just...not good with blood, I guess."

Hasn't she seen, like, a shit-ton of people die? Hasn't she killed a bunch of those people? How is it that she's not good with blood?

I watch as the boys carefully roll Amina's brother onto his back. Then Eli holds him up as Alistair makes a thin slit with the knife where there's already a scar forming from the first time the chip was taken out. I wonder if the scar will be worse now. I close my eyes at the first sight of blood, and when I look again, Eli's pressing the towel to the spot under the boy's dark hair, and Alistair no longer holds the metal rectangle. 

I tug Amina's arm to signal that she's okay to turn around, and she spins but doesn't let go of me. 

"He's not moving," Amina observes. 

Right after she says that, the boy on the floor starts to squirm. Eli retracts his hand, stepping out of the way as Jake rolls around, and his eyes flutter open. 

"Jake?" Alistair says, but he gets no response. 

Slowly, Jake rises off the ground. He begins dragging his feet as he shuffles toward the hallway that leads outside. Eli and Alistair follow him, shadowing a fair distance behind in case something happens that they'll need to dodge. I make an attempt to follow too, but Amina's arm holds me back. I turn and see her with her eyes shut and her throat swallowing hard. 

"You okay?" I ask. 

She nods rapidly, responding, "Yeah. Just a little woozy."

She keeps her hold on me and tries to take a step forward, but then she stumbles back again, and I react fast, pulling her upright. 

"Sorry," she says. 

She shakes the dizziness off and blinks a couple of times before trying again, this time successful. We make it outside to where Alistair and Eli and trailing behind Jake, walking no quicker than a toddler could crawl across the open field. When they hear us coming, Alistair wanders back to join us. 

"This isn't going to work," he says.

"What?" I say. "Why not?"

"At this rate, it will take days, possibly weeks to get where we need to go."

He has a point. We probably could've guessed this before, but letting Jake sleepwalk us to our destination is far too impractical. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that my idea is a flop. 

Suddenly, I think of another idea.

"What if we can somehow get him onto one of the busses, and then he could maybe just point us where to go by turning in whatever direction we need to turn."

"That's a possibility," Alistair replies after a second of thought. "We just need to get him on a bus."

"I'll..." Amina loses her voice but tries again. "I'll help with..."

I nearly topple over from the weight of her pulling me down by my arm as her legs give out, but she lets me go before I can manage to copy her fall. As soon as she lands on her knees, she bends over and vomits on the grass.

Like sister, like brother. A thump redirects my attention as Jake crashes to the ground. Eli and I trade places, him rushing over to help Amina, and me running to Jake. I drop down beside him on the grass and say his name, but I get no response. What if we killed him? What if the chip was too much for his body to handle?

I reach out to try to shake him awake, but as soon as my hand touches his skin, I see a flash of light come from my right, and I whip around, spotting not a light but instead a shadow in the distance. As the shadow approaches, it becomes clearer, and I stand up, unable to breathe anymore due to the disbelief of what's right before my eyes. It can't be her. There's no way it's her. But it is. I see her. 

Amber's wearing a mint green sundress that blows in the wind as she steps toward me across the grass. For a moment, I just stand there, my heart not quite giving in to what's happening, but when she smiles, I fall headfirst into the euphoria, bursting into a sprint toward her. She holds out her arms, her eyes gazing at me in pure silence. 

But when I throw my arms around my girlfriend, I feel them fling back into my torso as the girl before me crumbles to dust and disappears. In that instant, my happiness plummets, creating an endless pit in my entire body, and it yanks me to the ground as tears push free from my eyes. 

I really thought it was her. I really did. I was so gullible, and now I'm even more broken than before, crying on the grass in the middle of the night. 

A second later, I hear Cyrus's voice calling my name, but I don't look up. I feel his hands touch my back, and I see him crouch down in front of me, but none of it feels real. Every part of me is numb, as though it experienced such a drastic change in power that it overloaded and shut off. 

Then I realize he's not the only one here. The few people from the busses who aren't fast asleep are outside now, staring around at the situation. 

"Andi," Cyrus says again, "please tell me you're okay."

I finally bring my head up, seeing his worried eyes. 

"I'm okay," I say. 

"Okay," he breathes. "Let me help you up."

I accept the gesture and use him to pull myself onto my feet. When I turn around, I now see Amina sitting on the grass. She's no longer throwing up, now leaning back on Eli's chest, his arms wrapped over hers. Alistair must've gotten the chip out of Jake, because the boy is awake and standing up, wobbling a little as he does. Some of Alistair's troupe have left their cave to see what's going on as well, and they're in good timing, because Alistair spins around to them and makes an announcement. 

"As soon as morning hits, I'm leaving with KAAFF to help them continue their mission of finding and freeing the other kids. You can come with me if you want, or you can stay here."

Without hesitation, three step forward, but the other four who are outside with the rest of us stay back. Alistair doesn't mind, though. He simply gives a gracious nod to the ones who volunteered. 

"Good choice," he says. "Now go to bed. In the morning, we'll set out for Grant Academy. We need to consult with the whole group to come up with a new plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I may be stuck in my house tomorrow, depending on what new recommendations the government puts out regarding corona in the morning, so you may get another mega update day, but we'll see. I'm hoping to at least finish Wingmen, and possibly update KAAFF again, but I'm not sure. Anyway, there will be approximately 9 chapters left of this story, so we're over halfway there. I love you all! Have a lovely night!


	12. Chapter 12

**Andi's POV**

Getting off the bus, I can see that the school looks the exact same. Outside, however, is a different story. The trees have grown larger, with their branches wound together, connecting them all, like knots in knitting. Other plants have spawned as well. There are far more nodding onions scattered about the grounds than I previously remember. This wasn't an anomaly of nature. This was human-made. Pepper and the others who grow plants must've gotten bored. Before I enter the school, I have a moment of wondering where the burial site is, but then I realize the grass atop it has been completely replanted, and now pumpkins are thriving in the dirt above the bodies. 

I move on, heading inside, and our group calls a gathering in the cafeteria. The students all file in, confused as to why we're back to soon and with no more than four extra people. Jonah and Walker are both standing peculiarly close to one another as they lean against the wall behind where Amina stands. When Jonah notices me looking, he gives me a smile, his face turning a little red. I flick my eyes to Walker then back to him, and Jonah gets what I'm saying—I know he does—but he just shrugs, ignoring my question. 

Leif and Eli greet each other with a bro hug, and Eli instantly switches from concerned boyfriend to carefree best friend and the boys talk together. I'm standing next to Amina, waiting for her to start talking. I'm certainly not qualified to be public speaking on our plans for our whole group, so I'm leaving that up to her. 

When the crowd is settled down, she finally speaks. "So I'm sure you're all wondering why we are back so soon. The bottom line is all the other schools have been invaded and cleared like ours."

"Wait," Jonah interrupts. "Where's Amber?"

Amina hesitates to answer that, but when she does, it gets a lot of whispers in response. "Amber was taken by trackers. But we're going to find her," Amina goes on, quieting the crowd again. "We need to develop a new plan for how we're going to find the place where all the students have been taken to, so that we can go there and release them all."

"Well, do we have any leads?" Caroline speaks up. 

"Not really," Amina replies. "The only thing we found was a glove. Uh, TJ, show them the glove."

TJ holds it up. There's a symbol on the wrist of the fabric, and it looks familiar, but I can't pinpoint where. I assume it must've been worn by one of the trackers, and that would be why, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it somewhere else too. However, nobody else seems to have a clue where. 

"So yeah," Amina says. "We don't really have anything to go off of. That's why we need all of you thinking of ideas. Okay?" 

No answer. 

Amina nods. "Okay."

The group breaks into smaller ones as everyone begins talking again. Amina goes over to Eli where he takes her hand and tells her that she did well. Meanwhile, I wander over to Buffy who's conversing with one of boys who came with Alistair. I believe his name was Tyson. 

"It was a major battle," Buffy says. "It's only thanks to Andi finding our chips when she did that we weren't all taken by the trackers."

Usually, I imagine people who talk behind my back must say bad things about me. _Why is she leading? She doesn't even have powers. Who does she think she is taking control? She's only slowing us down._ It feels weird hearing something good being said behind my back. 

"I really didn't do much," I say, stepping into the chat. 

"She's being modest," Buffy tells Tyson. 

The boy doesn't even care. He's too focused on a different thought tugging his brain. 

"You said you fought trackers? Did you kill any?"

Buffy glances to me before replying, "Uh, yeah."

"So their bodies are here?" he clarifies. 

"There's a huge graveyard outside under all the pumpkins," Buffy confirms. "Why?"

Tyson's eyes buzz around to random places as his mind processes that information. After a second, he looks to us again.

"Have I mentioned I can read the minds of the dead?"

_______________________________________

I stand next to Tyson, watching as Buffy and Marty dig up one corner of the grave. The smell is awful as the first face comes into sight, but the skin remains intact. It looks like she's only sleeping, but I know she's not. Once the hole is large enough to access the entire body, Buffy tosses down her shovel, but she doesn't move quite yet. Marty notices his girlfriend's tenseness, and he goes over, locking his hand through hers. 

"Hey," he says gently. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can carry her."

To that, Buffy shakes her head. "I'm okay. It's just a person. A bloody, not breathing person."

Buffy starts to step forward, but Marty stops her. 

"I've got it," he says. 

He lets go of Buffy's hand and climbs down into the pit of bodies. I hear a crack as he lands, but I don't want to know what from. Tyson goes over too to help him as Marty lifts the woman up over the edge of the grave where Tyson takes it from him. 

Now out in the open, I can make out the features of the face, and my reaction is mixed, to say the least. Of all the trackers in that pit, they chose her, my tracker, the one who both put me in this situation and spared my life. Unfortunately, she wasn't given the same mercy as she gave me. The splice down the centre of her stomach shows that. 

Buffy walks by me as we follow the boys into the forest to find a spot with as little noise and distractions as possible so that Tyson can focus. Marty and Tyson place the woman carefully on the grass before sitting down around her.

"How many times have you read someone's mind?" Marty wonders. 

"Only once," Tyson admits. "It was my brother. He was killed by one of them." His eyes stare at the tracker, lacking any emotion at all. "I've never had the chance to read a tracker's mind."

He must be scared. I know I would be. Not scared of finding the horrors in their memories, but finding the good ones, the ones that remind me that this was a person at one point.

Tyson shakes out his hands then places them on the woman's head. He closes his eyes, and the rest of us just watch. Nothing visible happens for us, but for him, it's another story, which he describes as it happens.

"I see a van. A stop light. A MacDonald's, but that's not helpful. Those are everywhere. A building. It's silver. People, other trackers."

"A building," I repeat. "Do you know where it is?"

"I'm searching," Tyson responds. "I see signs. One says 'Darnestown Road.' Another says 'American University.' 'Welcome to Washington, D.C.'"

Tyson's eyes flick open, and he pulls his hands away from the woman. 

"They're in Washington. I don't know where exactly. There's so many memories. It's hard to find the important ones, but I'm pretty sure that's where we need to go."

Marty and Buffy both erupt in joy, giving Tyson compliments for his service, but I'm still staring at the corpse before us. 

"Tyson, one more thing," I say, cutting off the celebration. "Is there any way you could find another memory?"

"Well, what is it?" he wonders. 

"The day of the not-shooting at Grant. This was the woman who found me in the bathroom."

"Is there anything specific you want me to look for?"

"Just…anything."

Tyson obliges. "Okay."

He puts his hands down on the woman's hair and returns into his state of concentration. My hands pick at the grass as I anxiously wait for him to talk, but when he does, I'm disappointed. 

"I can't find it. I'm sorry. I'm looking for you."

"Well, what do you see?" 

"It keeps coming back to this memory," he explains. "It's a little girl. She's dancing. And she has green eyes. She's about to leave for her first day of preschool, and she's saying goodbye to me, or to her mom. Her mom's saying goodbye to. It's her daughter. Her daughter's name is Andi."

He lifts his hands from the woman's hair and looks at me, sorry-eyed. This tracker was a mother, and she had a daughter. I wonder if her daughter is missing her right now. I wonder if she knows what her mom's job was. Is she okay without her? 

"I'm sorry," Tyson says. "It's too hard to find the specific day."

"It's okay," I say, trying not to let my emotions boil over into my voice. "We know where to go now. Let's go tell the others."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This took me way too long to write, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Um, have a lovely day. I'm gonna try to update this again, but I may just write the first part for my next story. The only problem is, I can't decide whether to work on my Irby story of my Wonah story, because I know a lot of you are waiting for Wonah, but I also really want to write the Irby one. Anyway, bye!


	13. Chapter 13

**Andi's POV**

I went on a road trip once with Cece and Pops when I was ten years old. We drove through Utah and down to Arizona to visit one of Pops's third cousins, someone who had apparently seen me before, although I couldn't remember him. According to him, I'd grown a lot and I looked a lot like my "sister." I recall watching _Lizzie McGuire_ on the little DVD player screen that was strapped on to the back of my mom's headrest. I feel asleep in the car, and I woke up in a nice bed with a pillow and lots of blankets at my dad's third cousin's house. 

The busses we drive now have pillows and blankets that we brought from the school to take, since we knew it would be a several-day drive. We knew that 61 people checking into a motel would draw a lot of unnecessary attention to us, so we spent last night parked a bit off a secluded country road and slept there, no beds, no fancy house. The 61 people is an improvement from our previous numbers, but some did decide to stay back this time, while others, including Jonah, Leif, Walker, Alistair, and his gang chose to come. 

Today, we're in Kansas, and we're realizing we didn't bring enough water for our group to drink, so our drivers, Amina and TJ find a place to discreetly park a distance away from the edge of the town nearby, which has a supermarket right at its entrance. 

I stand up right away when volunteers are requested, knowing this is at least something I know I can do, unlike everything else on this mission. Jonah offers to come with me, so now we're walking together into the parking lot, me with Principal Metcalf's debit card in my pocket. Let's hope he has tap enabled. The last thing we want is to have to use one of ours and risk being tracked like we suspect we were when Amber paid with credit at the hotel that one time.

"On the bright side," I say after thinking through a whole conversation in my own head, "I may not have my own debit card anymore, but I know nobody can spend my money."

"What happened to yours?" Jonah asks. 

"Explosion," I reply. 

Jonah nods. It's funny how that answer is perfectly normal to him. Before all this, it probably would've brought up more questions, but now it's as understandable as anything. 

We walk through the automatic doors to the market and immediately head for the isle with the giant jugs of water. There are a few people in the store, but nobody seems to notice us. Jonah and I scan the shelves together, but I've been wanting to ask him something since I got back to Grant Academy yesterday. 

"So you and Walker…"

"What about us?" Jonah wonders. 

I roll my eyes. "Oh, come on. You're seriously going to pretend you two don't obviously have a thing?"

"Okay, fine. I like him, and I think he might like me, but I don't know for sure."

"That's so cute!" I squeak. 

"Chill. It's not a big deal."

"It's your first crush on a boy, and it's most likely reciprocated," I state. "It's a big deal."

He shakes his head to brush me off, but his blush gives away his true feelings. He knows it's a big deal too. 

"Just do me a favour," he says. "Don't start acting all weird when he's around. I'm already nervous enough."

That causes me to smile and say, "Awwwwww!"

"Andi."

"Sorry. I mean certainly. No weirdness."

He smiles and reaches for one of the plastic jugs of water from the self, and I grab one of my own. Together, we lug the bottles out of the isle and walk toward the check-out lanes. While we move, I begin to realize that the others in the store are staring at us, and I inadvertently draw closer to my friend, feeling uneasy under all the eyes. 

"Jonah," I whisper.

He's also glancing around at the adults all watching us.

"Yeah?" he says. 

"Do you notice that we're the only kids here?" I say. 

That normally wouldn't be something I pay attention to, but it's as though these people have never seen a kid before. 

Still, the two of us carry on up to the nearest cash register, and I'm not just eager to get out of here. We both sit our water jugs on the conveyor belt and wait as the woman at the till scans then for us and sits them down on the metal tray on the other side of her. She keeps flicking her eyes back to us as she types buttons on her keyboard, but I just try to ignore it. I can't just not pay for this water, and we do need it, so I'm just hoping she can move fast. 

I wait for her to set up the debit machine, but rather than do that, she asks us, "Are you two here with anyone, or are you alone?"

"Uh, I don't see why that matters," I reply. 

Suddenly, I feel a tug on my sleeve, and I look over to see Jonah staring at a security guard walking toward us from the other side of the store. 

Neither of us need to say anything. We know exactly what to do. We grab the jugs and take off in a bolt for the doors. Over the intercom, I hear another call for security, and soon there are two more coming after us. 

Jonah and I are almost at the doors when he looks back and sees the security getting close. He swerves left toward the tall ice freezer and sets down his water jug.

"Come on!" I shout, but he doesn't listen. 

He grabs an ice bag from the freezer and tears it open. Then he pours the cubes down on the ground where they scatter out, turning the floor into a slip-n-slide. The security guards chasing us have to slow down to avoid slipping, giving the two of us more time to take the lead. 

"Good thinking," I say. 

"Thanks," he replies. 

A yell to our right launches us on our feet again as he picks up his water jug in one hand and grabs my hand with the other, pulling me along out through the security sensors. They beep like wild, but that doesn't stop us. Once outside, he heads in the direction of our busses, but my eyes catch on a newspaper dispenser by the doors. The headline is too enticing to leave behind, so I take one from the box before continuing after Jonah. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, lovelies! Here's another chapter for you all! Now I'm going to work on something else. I hope you will like it. Good bye!


	14. Chapter 14

**Andi's POV**

"Teens to remain in care indefinitely," I read aloud. 

Jonah sits next to me on the bench, while the others on the bus crowd around to look at the newspaper. We're currently driving through a small town in Kansas, one that we could only avoid by taking the highway, a road which isn't good for dodging police that may nor may not be after us right now. Going through civilization isn't ideal, but it's better than the alternative. Plus, this place seems quite sleepy as we roll down the streets, so I doubt anyone will even see us.

"What kind of care?" Kaitlin questions. "What does that mean?"

"It says that the new president, Sawyer Tunn, has declared that all the teenagers taken to the schools by the former government had been 'psychologically corrupted' through abusive behaviour," I read on, "and that all the kids are now receiving continuous medical care at special facilities to help them get better."

"Well, that's a blatant lie," Kaitlin declares. "Do they not know about the trackers that have been taking us?"

"Maybe they've only gotten to some of the schools," Jonah suggests, "and they don't know that all the ones over here have been invaded."

"Maybe," I agree, "but then why would they make such a big statement claiming to be saving them? Now the parents won't even question why their kids aren't coming back, because they think they're safe and in care, being fixed after the old president broke us, which he didn't, but I guess Tunn thinks all the damage the trackers did was by Singh's orders."

Amina's sudden slam on the brakes makes many of the kids in the bus go wobbling toward the front, catching themselves on either the seats of the person behind them. I stand up and pass the newspaper to Jonah so that I can squeeze my way through up to the driver to make sure she's okay. 

"What's going on?" I ask. 

"I don't know," Amina says. "Marty just suddenly stopped."

The single-story homes lining the street show no signs of motion, and now neither do our two busses which simply sit still in the road. Amina grabs the walkie-talkie from the dash and speaks into it. 

"Marty. Why are we stopped?"

"Sorry," comes his crackly response. "Buffy said she saw something."

"What did she see?"

My eyes are stolen by Buffy who bursts out from the doors of the bus ahead of us. Amina opens our doors so that I can go out and figure out what she's doing. She stops before a sign sticking out of one of the nearby lawns, being held up by metal pegs. Her mouth slowly opens as she stares at the picture of the political figure, President Tunn, on the sign. It's one of those support things to show allegiance to a certain candidate which many lawns are sporting around here, for there is theoretically going to be an election soon to permanently replace Singh. However, I don't know when. 

"What is it?" I ask. 

"Look at his pin."

She points to a tiny enamel pin on the president's collar. It's a black circle with five twisted lines. When my brain makes the connection, my jaw drops down farther than Buffy's.

"That's the symbol of the trackers' gloves," I say.

"Exactly," Buffy confirms. 

"So that means..."

"President Tunn is involved in this more than we thought."

"Do you think he's responsible for Singh's assassination?" I wonder. 

"Seems likely," Buffy answers. "And if I you want my guess, I'd say he's probably responsible for all of this."

"So he planned the not-shootings and abilities and the chips and the trackers. What does he want out of all of this?"

"What all bad guys want," Buffy mutters. "Control."

___________________________________________

West Virginia is where our plan really unravels. 

"What are those booths up there at the boarder?" Walker wonders. 

He shares a seat with Jonah. The two boys are cuddled up close, Jonah lying across Walker while Walker's arms hold him close. I'm pretty sure at some point during the drive, they both forget that they're supposed to be nervous, and they just sunk into their mutual feelings. I keep giving Jonah teasing looks, but he just ignores me and continues snuggling with his boy. 

Jonah glances out the window to see what's got Walker's attention. When he sees it, his eyes go wide, causing me to stand up and go toward the front of the bus to examine the situation. The road is blocked by a bar connected to a booth with a window. There shouldn't be a stop at this boarder—we're not going out of the country—but for some reason there is. 

"Amina," I say. 

"Yeah, I know," she responds as I step up beside her. 

She grabs the walkie-talkie and contacts to Marty in a hurry. 

"Marty, there's a gate to cross the boarder. Don't say a word. Let me explain, and just follow along."

"10-4."

"What's your plan?" I ask her. 

"I was in improv club for a year," she replies. "Finally those skills are gonna be used."

She pulls up to the booth as I cower back into a seat, watching through the glass as a person with a black hat leans out to look at Amina. The hat has the tracker symbol embroidered on it, and at notice of that, I know we're basically screwed. But Amina slides open her window and meets the man's eyes with pure confidence. 

"Where are you kids going to?" the man questions. 

He glances back at the busses, and I duck to avoid making eye contact. It doesn't sound like he really cares where we're going. He's already decided where we're going to be going. 

"They're stragglers," Amina replies. "I'm bringing them back. I don't believe I have to explain further."

The man gives her another harsh stare. "No you don't. Get out of the vehicle."

He leaves the window to head for the door of the booth, and I whirl up to where Amina is still sitting in the driver's seat, eyes wide as she considers her options. 

"The bar is still down," I whisper. "We can't get through."

"I know," she hisses back. 

"You gonna get out?"

She doesn't respond. When the tracker comes around to our bus's door and starts banging on the glass, she gets up from her seat and shoves me down into it. 

"As soon as I get out," she instructs, "start driving."

"What about the gate?"

"I'll take care of it."

"What about you?"

"Leave the door open," she says. 

"Uh..."

She switches the doors open and steps down before I can do anything. The tracker attempts to get in, but Amina holds out her hands, blocking the man's entrance. It takes me a second to get past my shock, but I do eventually remember Amina's orders, and with that in mind, I shift the bus out of park and start driving. As I approach the gate, I brace myself for impact, but right when I think we're about to hit it, a slosh of grey liquid splashes over the windshield, and the bar is gone. Then Amina's hands grab onto the doors of the bus and pull her in. She lands in a crouch on the bottom step. 

"Okay, pick up the speed," Amina orders. 

She tugs herself fully into the bus and closes the doors, while I follow her orders. 

The walkie-talkie buzzes as Marty asks, "We just tryna lose 'em?"

"Yup," Amina replies. 

"Okay, I'll follow. You lead."

My hands shake as I try to steer down the road. My lack of driving experience is evident in the way the vehicle wobbles back and forth. I can't see it, for I'm pretty sure I'll crash if I take my eyes off the road even for a second, but I hear the other cars on our tail now. 

"Hey, Marty," Amina says into the walkie. "We got to lose them."

In that instant, a huge crackle of thunder rings out from behind me, and the scare causes me to veer off to the left before I manage to straighten out again.

The walkie clicks on as Marty says, "Leif took care of it."

I should feel less panicked now that there aren't people chasing us, but the fact that I don't even have my learner's licence, yet I'm driving a bus now, causes me too much stress to let go of. 

"Want me to take over?" Amina asks. 

"Mmhmm," comes my eager whimper. 

We do a quick trade off, her foot replacing mine on the pedal right after I take it off, and she takes the seat from me. Relieved of my duty, I let out a breath, and a moment later, Eli comes walking up to where I stand. 

"They just sent out a message to all police," he says. "They're watching for us."

"Guess we'll just have to make our path a little more overly-complicated," Amina says.

________________________________________

Our path truly is needlessly long. I'm pretty sure we went in circles a few times, but hey, no tracker nor police have found us. We manage to make it close to the city before we face any trouble. Unfortunately, the trouble we do face seems too strong to simply avoid. A barrier of police cars waits at the entrance to the next town. Their sirens are off, but their lights flicker in the dark. Amina makes the smart call to shut our headlights off, and Marty's bus copies. 

"We can't go through them," Eli says. 

"I know," Amina says. "Let me think."

We continue rolling forward while the girl weighs the possibilities, but when the blue and red lights begin moving toward us, she's out of time. 

"Amina," I say.

Before she can respond, a loud scrape sounds beneath us, and I stumble to the left as the bus begins moving directly sideways. I spin around to see Marty's bus following the same path. Soon, we're off the road and being pulled into the forest nearby.

"What's happening?" Kaitlin shouts from the back of the bus, but nobody has an answer. 

My eyes dart around, searching our surroundings for the source of the magnetic-like force, but the darkness is too heavy. In an instant, that changes as the shaded trees wipe away, being replaced by dingy walls lit by a flickering yellow light above that I can't see. 

Now with some lighting, I see the cause of our travel. Three identical triplets, all with the same curly dark hair, drop their hands and relax their bodies. At the same time, our two busses come to a halt. Beside the triplets is another girl, this one much taller and older. She waves her arms, and the last speck of night that was behind me vanishes, closing the room solid around us. 

The person who manages to speak first is Jonah, who just whispers, "What the fuck?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This was originally going to be two parts, but I managed to fit it into one, so now the story's looking like it's going to complete at 18 parts. I'm excited, because we're getting really close to the end. I really hope you all like it a lot. I'm pretty sure I'll have a fair bit of time tomorrow, so I'm going to try to write the rest of the story tomorrow and get it finished. We'll see how it goes. Love you all! Bye!


	15. Chapter 15

**Andi's POV**

"Who are you?" the tallest girl interrogates. 

A few members of KAAFF stand in the room now, while the rest stay in the busses. Where we are, I have no idea, but I'm hoping these four girls will explain that. The fact that they're the ones questioning us feels a little ironic. 

"Who are you?" Amina retorts. "And where are we?"

"You don't get our help if you don't answer," the tall girl responds. 

"Why would we want your help?" Amina argues. 

"Because," says the triplet on the left, "there is a whole line of police waiting for you, and we could send you back there at any moment."

Amina goes silent. She knows they have the leverage in this conversation. 

"We're KAAFF," she says after a second. 

"And what is KAAFF?" the tall girl asks. 

"Kids with Abnormal Abilities Fighting for Freedom. We're trying to free the kids who have been taken. Now your turn. How did you find us?"

The tall girl chuckles. "You guys have every kind of authority after you. It wasn't too hard to find you with all the police signals we're tapped into."

"So who are you?" Alistair steps up from out of the crowd. "And how do we know we can trust you?"

"We're like you," the triplet on the right says. "We want the exact same thing as you. We want to free the kids that have been taken."

"How are the four of you planning to do that?" Amina challenges. 

"It's not just the four of us," the right triplet replies. 

She turns around and turns a doorknob that I didn't even know was there, pushing open a door. A whole other room is revealed. This one is better lit, and filled with the chatter of numerous bodies of teenagers all rushing through. There are no windows. This is certainly some kind of basement or bunker. I wonder if these people live here. The four girls begin walking into the space, and KAAFF follows. 

"Welcome to Singh's Society," the tall girl says. 

"Singh?" I repeat.

That's when I see him, the reason for the name. President Singh stands at the far end of the room, talking to some others. So much for being assassinated.

_______________________________________

The triplets, whose names we learnt are Sira, Mira, and Tira, stand against the wall with the taller girl, Raquel, as well as with several others I don't know. Although there are chairs available around the ovular conference table, the members of KAAFF who weren't content with the shorter explanation we received earlier in the night stand in the room, none of us comfortable with having the privilege of relaxing at the same table as President Singh and his two colleagues his age, neither being people I recognize. Many KAAFF members have gone off to learn about Singh's Society from others in the group, but I need more information on what's going on, and how it's going on.

We've already heard from Singh the story behind his rise from death. As you probably guessed, he was never dead. It was a hoax, a cover-up, a way for him to escape alive after multiple real assassination attempts. After faking his death, he ran into some teenagers who had escaped their school, and he's been working with them since to help the kids who'd been kidnapped while staying out of the public eye. While working on that, he and the other people down in this bunker, which is located in a location I still don't know, have been discovering many things about the invaders and about us abnormals. 

"I knew Sawyer Tunn decently well when I was still in the Whitehouse," Singh explains. "He always had this hunger for power, and he was often trying to get me to take his side on certain issues, mainly ones regarding our international affairs. He had a fascination with war and conflict, and he focused much of his time on learning tactics to win over other countries. I think he did this so that he could use his control over you kids as a means to get control over the rest of the world. I think he's trying to build up an army that no country could possibly beat."

"You said you did research on what caused our abilities," Buffy brings up. 

"That's true," Singh replies. "There are several young people here with enhanced intelligence and problem-solving and mathematical skills, and they managed to identify that your abilities are a result of a virus that you were all given during the invasions."

"If it's a virus," Marty speaks up, "then how come no one else got it?"

"It only affects kids," Singh explains, "hence why your school staff was unable to get it. It's also not contagious. It was human-created to be that way. The virus doesn't show up in typical responses to illness, but it instead attacks your cells, and causes irreversible damage that alters them. The abnormal abilities came from this genetic modification."

Everyone seems satisfied with that answer—except for me. 

"I have a question," I say. "How come I don't have any abilities?"

Singh looks confused, so I figure I should elaborate more. 

"I was there when my school was invaded. I was hiding in the bathroom. Someone came in, and I was knocked out just like everyone else, but I didn't have a chip, and I have no powers. But I was there. Shouldn't I be able to do something?"

Singh has no answer. He glances around at his colleagues, but neither of them have one either. 

"I don't see how that's possible," Singh says after a moment.

Then a boy steps forward from beside Sira, saying, "Actually, it is."

Singh looks back at the boy and lets him go into depth.

"Sorry," the boy says. "I didn't introduce myself. I'm Carson. I have enhanced intelligence. I was part of the group that discovered the virus. You see, when the virus attacks the typical body, it usually manages to alter the cells before the body can create antibodies to fight the virus, but there is the slim possibility that the body could've created those antibodies before the virus was able to do any damage."

"You never mentioned that," Singh says.

"Because I didn't think it could happen," Carson justifies. "Your immune system would have to be well beyond average capability in order to fight it off that quickly."

"So I just have a really good immune system?" I summarize. 

"It appears so," Carson confirms. 

"And because of that, I just don't have powers," I say, feeling a little disappointed. 

"That's correct, but you also skipped out on a lot of things," Carson says. "We haven't identified all the effects of the virus on the cells, but so far we have found one major side effect. There is a specific scent that all the kids with abilities are unable to handle. It makes their brains lose functioning ability and shut down, kind of like being intoxicated way past the limit of the human body. Because you managed to fight off the virus, that scent won't affect you."

"Does that give me any advantage?" I question skeptically. 

"Actually, it might," Singh says. "We know so far that there is a facility where Sawyer's headquarters are and where are the kids are being brought, and we know it's around here, but we haven't been able to find where. I am uncertain about what kind of security it will have, but I can guarantee there must be methods of ensuring any rogue teenagers don't access their controls and shut down this whole operations, so it's likely that you'd be able to get past any barriers if there are any."

"Okay," I respond, taking that in, "but what about the sibling telepathy stuff?" 

"That, we haven't covered yet," Carson says.

"So do you guys have some kind of plan for releasing the kids?" Amina finally asks. We've been so focused on all the details that we forgot about the main reason we're even here.

"Well, we know we can easily get into the facility using Raquel's teleporting ability," Singh explains, "but in order for her to be able to create a passage inside, she needs to know where to place the gateway, and we have not found that out yet."

A few others from KAAFF begin asking questions of their own, but I'm not listening to them. Instead, I'm having my own internal epiphany. It becomes external when I interrupt whoever is talking with a loud question for someone across the room. 

"TJ! Couldn't you see what Amber saw sometimes?"

He understands in an instant, no need for further explanation. 

______________________________________

The large group all stands around TJ, watching him while he closes his eyes and tries to connect to what Amber's seeing. The sound of the lights running becomes overwhelmingly apparent as he sits on his chair in silence. I imagine he must be doing what all those meditation videos say to do, trying to centre his energy, but after a long moment of concentration, he opens his eyes and releases a sigh, which causes everyone else around him to sigh in disappointment too. 

"Nothing?" I say, eyebrows up in worry. 

This has to work. This is the only idea any of us have had, and I know I have a history of coming up with ideas that fail, but I could really use a win.

"How did you do it before?" Buffy asks. 

"I don't know," he replies. "It just kind of happened when one of us was facing some kind of life or death situation."

"So we need to get you in a life or death situation?" I say, my mood dropping drastically in an instant. 

That's when Cyrus budges his way out of the group, saying, "I got this."

He steps up to TJ and reaches out, taking TJ's hand in his. The touch seems to relax the blonde, but that ends when Cyrus speaks again.

"TJ," he says, "if you don't do this, I'm going to break up with you."

TJ"s eyes go wide. "You wouldn't."

"I promise I would," Cyrus affirms.

Cyrus's face is free of any sign of uncertainty. I figure he must be bluffing, but he's one good actor. Maybe he's being serious. TJ seems to think so. He squeezes his eyes shut, and in less than a minute, he whips his eyes open again, looking shaken up as he pants as though he's just completed a deep-sea dive without an oxygen tank. 

"I saw it," he states. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This was kinda fun to write. Took me a while though, cause I kept getting distracted. Anyway, like I think I probably said in the chapter before, but I can't remember, I am going to try to finish this story tomorrow with a triple update, so we'll see how that goes. I love you. Have a lovely night!


	16. Chapter 16

**Andi's POV**

"She was outside," TJ explains, "and she was following a tracker, but she wasn't being forced. It was her choice."

TJ shutters as he recalls the image. Cyrus has his arms around the boy to comfort him as he sits with the rest of us at the table. The way TJ clings his hand to Cyrus's is almost heart-breaking on its own. He must've really believed that he would lose his boyfriend if he had failed, but I don't believe Cyrus would actually do that. Even if he did break up with TJ, Cyrus would be bawling to me so often that I'd force them to get back together. 

"What did your see outside?" Singh asks TJ. "What did it look like?"

"There was dirt," TJ replies, "and a huge fence with barbed wire at the top. Um, a big building. I couldn't see all of it, but it was silver, like built entirely of metal. And the doors that she went through had a sign on them that said 'private property.'" 

Singh's face lights up in realization. "Of course."

"You know that place?" one of his colleagues says. 

"Yes. Before Sawyer was working for government, he owned the largest water plant in the country. It was closed long ago when there were too many violations of safety laws. That sounds like the place you're describing. Raquel, are you able to open a passage to get there?"

"Sure," she answers, "but I'll need you to point it out on a map, so I can measure the spatial distance from where I am now."

"Excellent," Singh says. "We'll need a few people to be ready to go there. I can't go myself, because I'm certainly one of the biggest targets Sawyer has. But anyone confident enough in their abilities can stay here while we discuss the plan."

A few from the group exit, backing down from the challenge. I don't blame them at all. This could very well be the death of anyone who goes.

"Okay, well," I say, "I'll just head out, then."

"No," Singh stops me. "I think you should stay. You are the only teenager who will be resistant to some of the barriers that must be in that building. They have to keep the abnormal children under their control, so they know how to handle them, but they don't know how to control you."

I thought a gun was a good way to control a normal person.

"You don't have to, but you'd be doing your entire country a huge service," Singh finishes.

I step back to the table, already feeling the fear of the mission swelling inside me. I guess I can't say no. I have to go. I just hope I won't slow anyone down. 

"Okay," I say.

I can feel the eyes of my friends on me, all of them wide in concern. I wonder if they also know that I'm basically walking into my grave by agreeing to do this, but as long as I can find Amber, I can accept that. I just need her to be okay. She's the only thing I really care about at this point. 

"So," Singh begins, "I know you kids said how you focused on removing the chips from the students when you managed to win the battle for your school, but we have to take a different approach for this mission. There are far too many kids there who are all trained beyond any of you, and you won't stand a chance trying to remove their chips. Rather than removing the chips, you need to shut them down. The chips are all controlled by a common central source, which is likely to be in some kind of control room, probably with impeccable security. You need to focus on getting into there and shutting down the systems that are making the chips run."

Everyone here looks confident, but behind their stone faces, I bet they're all ready to wither. None of us know exactly what to expect, and the information we do have is so dubitable that we might as well be going in blind. But we pretend we know what we're doing, because really, if everyone unanimously agrees to do something insane, what they're doing becomes sane as anything else.

________________________________________

It's been a while since I've been able to use a washroom without having to rush or be cautious. As I leave the washroom, I begin making my way back to the meeting room where I'm about to walk into what's likely going to be my last memory, but on the way, I see Cyrus sitting in the hall on the floor. He has his hands in his lap and his chin up as he whispers something to himself with his eyes closed. He doesn't notice me until I crouch down beside him and speak. 

"Hey, Cyrus."

His eyes open, and now I can see that they're red from crying. He sniffles and sits up a bit at the sight of me.

"Hi," he utters. 

"What's wrong?"

The beautiful thing about Cyrus is he doesn't lie or hide it when he's not okay. He's perfectly comfortable with showing his emotions, and he lets himself confide in others. Buffy and Jonah are nothing like that. The contrast between my other best friends and this one is astounding in that way. 

"Andi, how did you do it?" he asks me. 

"Do what?" I wonder. 

"How did you get yourself to let Amber go on that mission to the school when you knew there was a big chance she might not come back?"

His eyes soak in the sadness that rises around him, overtaking his breaths and causing him to have to gasp every once in a while to get enough air. To try to mitigate that, I reach out and put my hand on his shoulder. 

"Cyrus, TJ will come back," I tell him. "There's nothing that could ever keep him from you."

"That's what you thought about Amber," he responds. 

"Yeah, but you and TJ are different. He loves you so much that I'm pretty sure he created a new definition of how big love could be. Amber loves me, but not like TJ loves you."

Cyrus shakes his head at that. "No. I saw how she looked at you. She loved you. And she needed you. She needed you like the earth needs the sun."

"No, she didn't," I deny.

"Yeah, she did," Cyrus insists. "Must be a Kippen thing."

"Yeah," I mutter. "I guess."

I'm not sure if believe him, but if he's right, then that means that there isn't a way for me to guarantee that his boyfriend will make it back to him, because if even love can't be strong enough to justify my faith, then nothing can, and we all really are just at the mercy of a universe, and all we can do it pray that it has a heart. 

"Then I don't know," I whisper. "I'll try to make sure nothing happens to him."

"Thanks, Andi," he says.

He gives me a smile, but it quickly fades away into gloom again. I know my promise is worthless in the end. Truly, what can I do if the world decides TJ shouldn't make it out? Nothing. I can't do anything.

_________________________________________

In the end, only seven people are chosen to go on the mission. Those seven consist of myself, Buffy, Marty, TJ, Amina, Alistair, and Leif. It turns out most of Singh's Society is made up of either middle schoolers or kids with non-aggressive abnormal abilities. I watch as Raquel gets ready to make the portal. She stands with her feet firmly on the ground and her eyes closed, likely identifying the exact position to teleport us to. 

Behind me, Amina and Eli are saying their goodbyes. For a moment, they just stand with their hands linked between them, whispering some things I can't hear. Then right as Amina's about to step back, Eli pulls her in once more and kisses her on the lips. Amina looks caught off guard, but then she steps in even closer, accepting the action like a kid receiving a Christmas present. Something about it gives me the sense that this is their first kiss with each other, and that makes me smile. When Amina backs away again, Eli lets her go, and the girl comes over to join me. 

On the other side of me is TJ, he glances back at Cyrus for the tenth time, and Cyrus gives the same response as every time prior. He just stares with longing eyes but a smile. He doesn't want to hold TJ back. He wants to be supportive, but I can tell it's killing him. Suddenly, Cyrus breaks his motionless and runs up to TJ. Cyrus takes his boyfriend's face in his hands and plants a kiss on his lips, copying the couple before them. 

Marty and Buffy simply stand together with their hands locked. They're in this together. If one of them goes down, the other will too. Although they like to compete with each other, if any other opponent tries to hurt either one of them, the other will undoubtedly cast hell down on the third party. 

Leif left Clarissa back at Grant Academy, but I'm sure, if he could, he'd be telling her goodbye just like everyone else with a significant other. Meanwhile, I'm standing here alone. My girlfriend isn't with me ready to enter into combat. She's already in the fight, one of the many hearts lost in the process. But she has a chance, and even if that chance is one percent, I will make sure she's in the one percent. 

Raquel opens her eyes and puts her arms out, creating an orb of blue spirals in midair. Then she spreads it open, and a blank dark space expands before us. What lies through the gateway isn't visible, but we all lay our trust on the floor and step through together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm pumped, and I hope you all are too. Two more parts. Who's ready? Okay, cool. See you.


	17. Chapter 17

**Andi's POV**

My foot lands on a wooden floor. Around me, rows of planters fill the room, and a skylight above lets sun in to feed them. Nobody's in here other than us twelve, which confuses me at first. It seems to puzzle everyone, because they all stroll around the space, scanning it for any sign of life, but all they see are the green plants sprouting, of a species I can't name, but then again, I'm no plant expert. 

"Is this the right place?" Marty wonders.

"Raquel knew the distance," Amina answers. "It must be."

"Why would a prison for kids have a flower garden?" Buffy questions. 

"Kids need to eat too," Amina replies. 

"But people don't eat flowers," Marty counters.

I watch as Alistair goes up to examine one of the flowers. Its purple petals appear normal, but then one of them suddenly bend out toward Alistair, and he flinches back. 

"Did you do that?" TJ asks, eyes wide. 

Alistair's face remains focused and unmoved as he responds, "No."

Out of nowhere, the stem of the flower stretches and strikes for Alistair, but he sends it up in flames before it can get to him. As though signalled by that, every other plant in the room begins to rumble.

"I think we've outstayed our welcome here," Amina says. 

The nine of us jet for the door, but right as I'm about to take the handle, two of the flowers grow out in front of it, blocking my path. I spin around, looking for another way out, but what I find is a kid standing at the back of the room, staring at us with piercing blue eyes. 

When he swipes the air with his hand, the flower behind me flings out and wraps around my wrist, pulling me up against the door. He takes a few more slashes, catching Buffy and then TJ. One tried to grab Leif, but the boy sends a zap through it that makes the plant turn black and wither. Amina starts tapping the flower petals, turning them to droplets like rain, but when one grabs her by the wrists, she is unable to touch them with her fingers. 

Alistair is the one to challenge the mystery boy. With a stare, he lights the boy's shoes on fire, but he puts it out in an instant as he calls over some leaves to smother out the flames. The one to finally put an end to the chaos is Marty when he appears from out of sight behind the boy with his elbow around his neck. The rest of us all watch as the boy's face goes red, and he drops to the floor with a clunk. 

The flowers all go limp, and my friends pull free from their grasp. 

"Is he dead?" Buffy asks.

Marty shakes his head. Then he kneels down to the boy and rolls him over to access the back of his neck where Marty pries the boy's chip out and tosses it on the floor. 

"He's good," Marty says. 

"Okay," Amina breathes. "So we need to get searching. Since none of us know where the main control room will be, we should split up to cover more ground."

"Okay, but not groups of two," TJ says. "That's how Amber was lost last time."

"Right," Amina responds, thinking. "Then Alistiar, and Leif, you guys come with me. Buffy, Marty, and TJ, you go with Andi and make sure she doesn't die."

"Hey, guys," Marty interrupts, "you should see this."

We all go over to the window where he stands. Although I had an idea of what I would see, I didn't think it would be of this scale. The building spans the size of a university campus, and on the dirt outside five or so stories down, thousands of children are practicing their various abilities, all lead by trackers. 

"Cool," Amina says in a high-pitched breath. "This is gonna be hard." Then she spins around and claps her hands together, saying, "Okay, let's go."

I expect there to be a mass of people waiting for us on the other side of the door, so I'm surprised and confused when the hallway is empty. Amina doesn't question it, though, and she instructs our group to divide as planned. I walk with Marty, Buffy and TJ down the hall, all of us looking around constantly, paranoid that someone's going to be here. 

When we begin hearing voices, Marty remembers his ability and casts his cloak of invisibility over us, and we stand up against the wall as we wait for the people to pass. A group of four trackers comes around the corner and walks by us without noticing our presence. 

When they're gone, I hear Marty whisper, "Everyone hold hands. We're gonna continue through like this."

I do as told, grabbing Buffy's hand in one, and TJ's in the other. We carry on down the hall, passing by a few more trackers unseen, eventually coming up to a large staircase. The ceiling is high over the place, and the pure white stairs gleam in the bright lights. Several people travel up and down, but they aren't just trackers. Some kids walk alongside the adults, their eyes lacking any sign of personality or emotion. They might as well be robots.

Suddenly, my eye catches on one tracker in particular that I recognize from the television. It's Sawyer Tunn. He doesn't wear the same black as the others. Instead, he has his own grey suit and tie, and he's walking alongside a tracker, talking to him. 

"One of them acted out this morning," the tracker tells Tunn. "We put her down, but I'm afraid they might be getting stronger."

Tunn stops walking and turns to his partner, saying simply, "Increase the strength of the control. Modify it so that there's no way they could break free."

The tracker nods and starts down the hall to our left.

"Follow him," Buffy whispers.

Our chain of hands takes off after the tracker, and we end up following him around several winds in the path. We stay a bit back so that he doesn't hear our footsteps, which becomes more important once the business of the hall fades and it becomes just us and the tracker. Eventually, he opens up a door and it falls heavily behind him, but Marty manages to catch the handle before it closes. The shield of invisibility drops from us as Marty reaches around to unlock the door before letting it settle shut and turning to us. 

"Okay," he says. "When we get in, there's probably going to be lots of trackers. You ready?"

I'm about to nod when I get a twist in my gut as a blur of blonde grabs my attention. The instant I recognize her face, tears start streaming like a waterfall from my wide eyes. My friends turn to look as I run up to her. Jake isn't here this time. She can't be a hallucination this time. She must be real this time. 

Then my dream goes dark as I hit my hands on a shield of white sugar lace. It appears so must faster than I remember her being able to create. Her image, although obstructed, is still visible a little through the cracks between the lines. Now I'm crying for a different reason. 

"Amber," I whimper.

She stares at me, cold like ice. I wonder if she even recognizes me anymore. Maybe she's been so brainwashed that I'm just a speck of dust in an ocean. Maybe she won't ever know me again. 

"Amber," I weep again, putting my hands on the divider between us.

Her feet step slowly toward me and brings her own hands up to mirror mine. She's so close, yet she feels so distant. All of a sudden, I feel TJ's hand grab my arm and pull me away, and I look down to see the sugar lace creeping toward my feet. 

Amber's eyes lock with TJ's, and a second later, her wrath releases as a sudden spike of white shoots out from the shield. TJ dodges the attack and retaliates by sending a wave of force in her direction which shatters her shield. 

TJ shouts back to me, "Go! I'll handle her," but I can't get myself to leave Amber. 

Thankfully for me, Buffy takes my hand and yanks me away before another shard of sharp sugar lace can impale me. I'm pulled into the door where the tracker went and Marty waits. She slams the door shut tight, sealing us inside the dark, empty tunnel. 

In here, my sobs echo off the ceiling, and Buffy pulls me into a hug. 

"Hey," she says. "It's okay."

"It's not okay," I whimper. "It's really not okay."

"I know," Buffy says. "But it will be okay soon."

She looks at me with confidence in her statement, but I really don't know how right she is. 

"Hey, does it seem weird to you guys that there's no one in here?" Marty asks, forcing me out of my pity party. I can't be crying while trying to save all the kids in the country. 

"Yeah," Buffy replies. "You'd think there should be some kind of security to keep the kids out."

Out of nowhere, a flash of red light sparkles from the ceiling, catching my eyes, and there's a sound of air being released into the room. As I smell what reminds me of vinegar with a hint of kiwi, but probably isn't that, I realize why there are no trackers here. They don't need any. 

In a matter of seconds, Buffy and Marty both fall unconscious on the ground, while I remain standing, the scent doing nothing more than burning in my nose. I kneel down and try to shove my friends awake, but they don't move. It's up to me now. 

I consider pushing them out into the hall, but I figure they're safer here than in the open out there, so instead I just stand up again and start toward the other end of the lengthy tunnel. When I reach the far door, I test the handle, and it's unlocked, so I go through. I'm relieved to be out of the irritating stink, but that relief only last about a second before seeing the tracker standing in front of a large panel of controls and about fifty tiny screens showing all parts of the facility, with one acting as a computer monitor. 

He looks at me for a good two seconds in bewilderment before reaching for the gun in his belt. I react immediately by running around behind him to get out of the way. He chases me with the front of his gun, but I reach for the office chair by the screens and lift it up then chuck it at the man. Clearly he's been trained to fight people who actually use good fighting tactics, for this catches him off guard, and he stumbles back, dropping his gun as he crosses his arms over his face to block the flying furniture. In the time he's distracted, I'm able to grab the gun from the ground and lift it up, now having the upper hand. 

I could pull the trigger now, and I probably should, but I'm incapable. I've never been the one to directly kill anyone before, and this would be a first for me. My finger trembles over the trigger as I attempt to muster up the fury needed to do the act. 

Eventually, I realize I can't do it. Instead, I run to open the door again and laugh the gun out into the room before shutting the door again. The man looks at me, eyes still filled with shock, from where he sits on the floor from his fall. 

"How did you get through the tunnel?" he questions. 

I step up to him, feeling a rush of confidence due to my position above him. I could tell him how I'm not abnormal, and they didn't expect someone as weak as me to get this far. I could say that I had help from people smarter than me who told me that I would be able to get past the scent barrier. I could even lie and say I'm abnormal like everyone else, and their barrier wasn't effective. Instead, I tell the truth. 

"I'm special."

He stares at me for a moment, but when I turn to the control panel and computer, he struggles to get to his feet. Before he can, however, I grab the chair from the floor again and swing it over his head, knocking him out cold. I gaze down at the man I just defeated, feeling a sense of pride. Maybe I'm not so useless after all. 

The application is already open on the computer screen. I can see the number beside the control label way up in the hundreds, and in the bottom left, there's a black button labelled turn off. I click it, and the adrenaline that's been powering my actions dissipates as the exhaustion of the stress takes over my body, but I'm smiling nonetheless. It's officially over. I can breathe now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This took a long time to get right, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope you all enjoyed it. Final chapter up next!


	18. Chapter 18

**Andi's POV**

On the screens, all the children in every part of the facility stop walking and look around, realizing what's happening, and I see the first few strikes of what's surly going to become a full-on war with the trackers soon, but the only person I care about is out in the hall. When I go out there, her and TJ are hugging on the ground, and Buffy and Marty are lying against the wall, worn out but awake. 

I feel my breathing stop as Amber's eyes find mine, and the tears that glisten in her eyes begin to pour down her cheeks. She lets go of her brother and hurries to get to her feet. We both start in a run, meeting in the middle where we tangle together, my arms tight around her and hers around me. Feeling her body on mine recharges all the energy I'd lost in this quest, and I hold her for several minutes, even while she talks. 

"I'm sorry," she breathes. "I shouldn't have left."

"Don't apologize," I reply. "Just kiss me."

She backs away with a smile and then comes in to press her lips to mine. There's a sense of urgency in it, like neither of us could possibly wait any longer, or we'd surly die. I think maybe I would've died if I didn't know I was working to get her back. Now that I have her, my muscles must be confused, for they've been tense for so long. She kisses me a few more times to make sure I'm really here, and then she pulls away, her thumb still tracing my jaw. 

"Remember all that stuff you said about being normal?" she says. 

I let out a little laugh, rubbing one of her palms with my thumb as our two hands dangle between us. 

"Yeah," I respond. 

She moves her other hand from my jaw up to tuck a strand of my dark hair behind my ear as she says, "Normal people don't save tens of thousands of people."

I smile. She believed in me from the start. Maybe that was just young love clouding her judgment, or maybe she really knew what she was talking about, but either way, she was right. To congratulate her on that, I step in and kiss her again.

_______________________________________

_**Two Weeks Later** _

The symbol is displayed on each of us in the form of an embroidered badge: a fist coming out of the water. 

"They rose like a wave," sounds President Singh's voice through the microphone.

Hundreds of eyes gaze up at us from their seats, all in awe, all amazed. My parents are in the front rows beside Amber's. Bex isn't missing out on this opportunity to take a million photos. 

"They fought for their generation and future generations of all children in America."

Amber's hand squeezes mine. The last time we stood like this, we were at a funeral. Now we're standing on a stage before cameras and the audience, at a ceremony celebrating those who lived, not those who died. 

"Their actions defined heroism, unity, and courage."

His words ring out in the sky, rendering the audience speechless as they listen intently. Only a couple of weeks ago, they trusted Sawyer Tunn to take care of their children, but now their whole view has been flipped by the truth, and none of them had fully accepted it. But now I see the understanding slowly find its way through on their faces. 

"I am honoured to give this award for protecting the peace of our country to these incredible young adults who call themselves KAAFF. Kids with Abnormal Abilities Fighting for Freedom."

I look around at my friends who surround me. Only some of us could fit on the stage, but we represent every person who helped us save the kids, from those at Grant Academy to the Slink Tribe, from Singh's Society to Ari the nurse. We are here for every person who died fighting and those who had to see those deaths. Together, we stand here now for everything we stood for before. We rose like a wave. We are KAAFF.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it. Thank you all so much for reading! I love every one of you who stuck through me for this! I'm so excited for the stories I have to come next, and I hope you will all join me on those new endeavours. Have a lovely day or night of whatever time, and I love you all. Goodbye!


End file.
